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Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin Mclaughlin

PREPARED ON TIlE BASIS OF TIlE GERMAN VOLUME EDITED BY ROLF TIEDEMANN
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIIlGE, MASSACHUSETTS, AND LONDON, ENGLAND 1999
CONTENTS
Copyrigflt 0 1999 by the Praidc:nt and FdIows of Harvard College

Translators' Foreword
Printc:d in lhc: United SuIc:S of Amc:rica
'"
TIm work is a tr:uulation of Waha Benjamin, Da.s /Wsag<'ll .WtrA:, edited by RoIfTICdanann, copyrigtu
o 1982 by Suhrkamp \bUg; voIumc: 5 of \-IhI(c:r Bc:njamin. Gutuuuflt &ltrjftnt, prepared with the: 00-
Exposes
1
opc:ntion oCTheodor W Adorno and Gc:rshom Schokm, edited by RoIflic:dc:mann and Hc:rm:um
"Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1935)
3
Schwq>pc:nhaUKr, copyrigbt 0 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1989 by Suhrkamp \b'Iag, at a
Standstill." by RolfTICdc:mann. w:u lint published in F.ngIUh by MITPrest, copyright 0 1988 by the
"Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1939)
14
Manac:husc:tu Institute oC1Cchnology.
Publication of this book has bern 5Upponc:d by a grant from the: National Endowment for the Humani·
Convolutes
27
ties, an independent fedc:ral agency.
Overview
29
Cover photo: Walter Benjamin, ca. 1932. Photographa unknown. Courtesy of the Theodor W. Adorno
Archiv, Frankfurt am Main.
First Sketches
827
Frontispieo::: Panage:JoulTroy, 1845-1847. Photographer unknown. Courtesy Camavalet, Paris.
Photo copyrigbt 0 Photothtque des Musles de Ia Ville de Paris.
Early Drafts
"Vignettes: pages i, 1, 825,891, 1074, Institul Fraoo;:ais d'Arcltitecture; page: 27, Hans
"Arcades"
871
page: 869, Robc:n. Doisnau.
"The Arcades of Paris"
873
Library of Congress Cataloging.in·Publication Data "The Ring of Saturn"
885
Benjamin. Walter, 1892- 1940.
[Pauagc:n·W:rk. English)
99 201 75
Addenda
The:u-cades projea I Walla Benjamin:
Expose of 1935, Early Version
893
translated by Howard Eiland and i«;vin McLaughlin;
prepared on the balis of the Gc:rrua.tl m lumc: ediled by RoIfT>edemann.
Materials for the Expose of 1935
899
p. ou.
Materials for "Arcades"
919
Includes index.
ISBN ().{j74..()4326-X (alk. paper)
I.liedem;uUl. Rolf. IL litle.
PT2603.FA55 Pl3513 1999
"Dialectics at a Standstill," by RolfTtedemann
929
944' .361081-d.:21 99-27615
,
"The Story of Old Benjamin," by Lisa F"ittko
946
Dc:sign«1 by G-n Nefsky Frankfddl
Translators' Notes 955
Guide to Names and Tenus
10 16
Ind""
1055
nIustrations
Shops in the Passage Vero-Dadat
Glass roof and iron girders, Passage Vivienne
The Passage des Panoramas
A branch of La BelleJardiniere in Marseilles
The Passage de 1'000ra, 1822-1823
Street scene in front of the Passage des Panoramas
Au Bon Marthe department store in Paris
I.e Pont de; planete;, by Grandville
Fashionable courtesans wearing crinolines, by Honore Dawnier
Tools used by Haussmann' s workers
Interior of the Crystal Palace, London
La Caue-ttte-omanie, ou La Fureur du j our
The Paris Stock Exchange, mid-nineteenth century
The Palais de l' Industrie at the world exhibition of 1855
I.e 1'riompht du lcaliidOJcope, ou I.e tombeau dujeu ,hinou
Exterior of the Crystal Palace, London
Charles Baudelaire, by Nadar
The Pont-Neuf, by Charles Meryon
Theophile Gautier, by Nadar
The sewers of Paris, by Nadar
A Paris omnibus, by Honore Daumier
3<
35
36
47
49
50
59
65
67
134
159
164
165
166
169
185
229
232
242
413
433
A page of Benjamin's manwcript from Convolute N 457
A gall")' of the PaIai.-RoyaI 491
A panorama under colutruction 529
A diorama on the Rue de Bondy 534
Self-portrait by Nadar 680
Nadar in his balloon, by Honore Dawnier 682
1?te Origin ofPainting 683
Rue 1'raJUlIonain, Ie 15 auri11834, by Honart Daumier 717
Honore Dawnier, by Nadar 742
Victor Hugo, by Etienne: Catjat 747
L'Artiste et l'amateur du dix-neuuiime Jude
~ 5 0
L'Homme de ['art daTU I'mbarras de J01I milia- 751
Alexandre Dumas p(n=, by Nadar 752
L'Etrangomanie hlamie, au D 'Elre R-anrou it n} a pas d'tiffronl 783
Aaualiti, a caricature of the painter Gustave Courhet 792
A barricade of the Paris Commune 794
TIle Fourierist missionary JeanJoumet, by Nadar 813
Walter Benjamin consulting the Grand Dictionnaire univu.sel
888
Walter Benjamin at the card cataJogue of the Bibliothcque Nationale 889
The Passage Choiseul 927
Translators' Foreword
T
he materials assembled in Volume 5 of Walter Benjamin's G ~ . s a m m t / t t
Schriflm, under the: title DflJ pQJ.kJgen-WerA (first published in 1982), repre­
sent research that Benjamin carried out, over a period of thirteen years, on
e subject of the Paris arcades-les pa.ssagt.l-which he considered the most
important architectural form of the nineteenth cenrury, and which he linked with
a number of phenomena characteristic of that century' s major and minor preoc­
cupations. A glance at the overview preceding the "Convolutes" at the center of
the work reveals the range of these phenomena. which extend from the literary
and philosophical to the political, economic, and technological, with all sorts of
intennediate relations. Benjamin's intention from the first, it would seem, was to
grasp such diverse material under the general category of Urgtsdiich/e, signifying
the "primal history'" of the nineteenth cencury. This was something that could be
realized only indirectly, through "cunning" : it was not the great men and cele­
brated eventS of traditional historiography but rather the "refuse" and "detrirus
n
of history, the half-<:oncealed, variegated traces of the daily life of "the collective,n
that was to be the object of study, and with the aid of methods more akin-above
all, in their dependence on chance-to the methods of the nineteenth-century
collector of antiquities and curiosities, or indeed to the methods of the nine­
teenth-century ragpicker, than to those of the modem historian. Not conceptu..al
anruysis but something like dream interpretation was the model. The nineteenth
century was the collective dream which we, its heirs, were obliged to reenter, as
patiendy and minutely as possible, in order to follow out its ramifications and,
finally, awaken from it_lbis, at any rate, was how it looked at the outset of the
project, which wore a good many faces over time.
Begun in 1927 as a planned collaboration for a newspaper article on the
arcades, the project had quickly burgeoned under the influence of Surrealism, a
movement toward which Benjamin always maintained a pronowlced ambiva­
lence. Before long, it was an essay he had in mind, "Pariser Passagen: Eine
dialektische Feerie
n
(Paris Arcades: A Dialectical Fairyland), and then, a few
years later, a book, Paro, die Hauptsladt du XIX. Jahrhunderts (Paris, the Capital
of the Nineteenth Century). For some two-and-a-half years, at the end of the
Twenties, having expressed his sense of alienation from contemporary German
writers and his affinity with the French cultural milieu, Benjamin worked inter­
mittendy on reams of notes and sketches, producing one shon essay, "Der
Sarumring oder Etwas vom Eisenbau" (The Ring of Saturn, or Some Remarks
on Iron Construction), which is included here in the section "Early Drafts." A
hiatus of about four years ensued, until, in 1934, Benjamin resumed work on the
arcades with an eye to "new and far-reaching sociological perspectives." The
scope of the undertaking, the volume of materials collected, was assuming epic
proportions, and no less epic was the manifest the task, which
Benjamin pursued in his usual fearless by step, c:ngulfment­
beneath the ornamented vaulting of the reading room of the Blbliotheque Na­
tionale in Paris. Already in a letter of 1930, he refers to Tht AraukJ Projtct as "the
theater of all my struggles and all my ideas."
In 1935, at the request of his colleagues at the Instirute of Social Research in
New York, Benjantin drew up an expose, or documentary synopsis, of the main
lines of 1M AraukJ Project.. another expose, based largely on the first but more
exclusively theoretical, was written in French, in 1939, in an attempt to interest
an American sponsor. Aside from these remarkably essays,
brief text "The Ring of Saturn," the entire Arcadu complex (WIthout ddininve
tide, to be sure) remained in the form of several hundred notes and rdl.ections of
varying length, which Benjamin revised and grouped in sheafs, or
according to a host of topics. Additionally, from the late Twenties on, It
appear, citations were incorporated into these materials-passages drawn mainly
from an array of nineteenth-century sources, but also from the works of key
contemporaries (Marcel ProUSt, Paul Valery, Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, Georg
Simmel, Emst Bloch, Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor Adorno). These proliferating
individual passages, extracted from their original context like collectibles, were
eventually set up to communicate among themsdves, often in a ra¢.er subterra­
nean manner. The organized masses of historical objects- the particular items of
Benjamin's display (drafts and excerpts)-together give rise to "a world of secret
affinities," and each separate article in the collection, each entry, was to constitute
a "magic encyclopedia" of the epoch from which it derived. An imagt of that
epoch. In the background of this theory of the historical image, constituent of a
historical "mirror world," stands the idea of the monad-an idea given its most
comprehensive fonnulation in the pages on origin in the prologue to Benjamin's
book on German tragic drama, Ursprung tks ckulJchen 7Taumpiels (Origin of the
German Trauerspiel)-and back of this the doctrine of the re8ective medium, in
its significance for the object, as expounded in Benjamin's 1919 dissertation,
"Der BegrifT der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik" (The Concept of Criti·
cism in Gennan Romanticism). At bottom, a canon of (nonsensuous) similitude
rules the conception of the Arcadts.
Was this conception realized? In the text we have before us, is the world of
secret affinities in any sense perceptible? Can one even speak of a "world" in the
case of a literary fragment? For, since the publication of the PasJagen-WtrR, it has
become customary to regard the text which Benjamin himself usually called the
Passagenarheit, or just the as at best a "torso," a monumental fragment
or ruin, and at worst a mere notebook, which the author supposedly intended to
mine for mon: extended discursive applications (such as the carefully outlined
and possibly half<ompleted book 011 Baudelaire, which he worked on from 1937
to 1939). Certainly, the project as a whole is unfinished; Benjamin abandoned
work on it in the spring of 1940, when he was forced to Bee Paris before the
advancing Genllan army. Did he leave behind anything more than a large-scale
­
plan or prospectus? No, it is argued, '!ht ArcadeJ Project is JUSt that: the blueprint
for an unimaginably massive and labyrinthine architecture-a dream city, in
effect. This argument is predicated on the classic distinction between research
and application, rorschung and Darsttflung (see, for example, entry N4a,5 in the
"Convolutes"), a distinction which Benjamin himself invokes at times. as in a
letter to Gershom Scholem of March 3, 1934, where he wonders about ways in
which his research on the arcades might be put to use, or in a letter of May 3,
1936, where he tdls Scholem that not a syllable of the actual text (tigenllichen
'text) of the PasJagt1lllrbeil exists yet. In another of his letters to Scholem of this
period, he speaks of the future construction of a literary form for this text. Similar
statements appear in letters to Adorno and others, Where 1k Arauks Projtct is
concerned, then, we may distinguish between various stages of research, more or
less advanced, but there is no question of a realized work. So runs the lament.
Nevertheless, questions remain, not least as a consequence of the radical stants
of "srudy" in Benjamin's thinking (see the Kafka essay of 1934, or Convolute m
of the Arcades, "Idleness"). For one thing, as we have indicated, many of the
passages of reflection in the "Convolutes" section represent revisions of earlier
drafts, notes, or letters. Why revise for a notebook? The fact that Benjamin also
transferred masses of quotations from actual notebooks to the manuscript of the
convolutes, and the elaborate organization of these cited materials in that manu­
script (including the use of numerous epigraphs), might likewise bespeak a com­
positional principle at work in the project, and not just an advanced stage of
research. In fact, the montage fonn-with its philosophic play of distances, tran­
sitions, and intersections, its perperually shifting contexts and ironic juxtaposi­
tions-had become a favorite device in Benjamin' s later investigations; among
his major works, we have examples of this in EinbaJmslraJJt (One-Way Street),
lhrlitw Kiru1hei1 um N'ronuhnhurukrt (A Berlin Childhood around 1900), "Ober
den Begriff der Geschichte" (On the Concept of History), and "Zentralpark"
(Central Park). What is distinctive about 1k Arauks Projul-in Benjamin's
mind, it always dwelt apart-is the working of quotations intO the framework of
montage, so much so that they eventually far outnumber the commentaries. If
we now were to regard this ostensible patchwork as, de facto, a determinate
literary form, one that has effectively constructed itself (that is, fragmented it­
sclf), like the JOUf'7UlUX inh'mts of Baudelaire, then surrly there would be sig­
nificant repercussions for the direction and tempo of its reading, to say the least.
TIle transcendence of the conventional book form would go together, in this
case, with the blasting apart of pragmatic historicism-grounded, as this always
is, on the premise of a continuous and homogeneous temporality. Citation and
commentary might then be perceived as intersecting at a thousand different
angles, setting up vibrations across the epochs of recent history, so as to effect
"the cracking open of natural teleology." And all this would unfold through the
medium of hints or "blinks"-a discontinuous presentation deliberately opposed
to traditional modes of argument. At any rate, it seems undeniable that despite
the infonnal, epistolary aIUlouncements of a "book" in the works, an t igenl/jchtn
Buch, the research project had become an end in itself.
Of course, many readers will concur with the German editor of the Pauagtn­
WerA, Rolf TIedemann, when he speaks, in his essay "'Dialectics at a Standstill"
(first published as the introduction to the German edition, and reproduced here
in translation), of the "'oppressive chunks of quotations" filling its pages. Part of
Benjamin' s purpose was to document as concretely as possible, and thus lend a
"heightened graphicness" to, the scene of revolutionary change that was the
nineteenth century. At issue was what he caJJed the "conunodification of things."
He was interested in the unsettling effects of incipient high capitalism on the most
intimate areas of life and work-espccially as reBected in the work of an (its
composition, its dissemination, its reception). In this "projection of the historical
into the intimate," it was a matter not of demonstrating any straightforward
cultural "decline," but rather of bringing to light an uncanny sense of crisis and of
security, of crisis in security. Particularly from the perspective of the nineteenth­
century domestic interior, which Benjamin likens to the inside of a mollusk's
shell, things were coming to seem more entirely material than ever and, at the
same time, more spectral and estranged. In the society at large (and in Baude­
laire's writing par excellence), an unHinching realism was cultivated alongside a
rhapsodic idealism. "This essentially ambiguous situation-one could caJJ it, using
the tenn favored by a number of the writers studied in 1M Arcades Projut,
"phantasmagoricaJ"-sets the tone for Benjamin's deployment of motifs, for his
recurrent topographies, his mobile cast of characters, his gallery of types. For
example, these nineteenth-century types (Bineur, collector, and gambler head the
list) generally constitute figures in the middle-that is, figures residing within
as well as outside the marketplace, between the worlds of money and magic­
figures on the threshold. Here, funhermore, in the wakening to crisis (crisis
masked by habitual complacency), was the link to present-day concerns. Not the
least cunning aspeCt of this historical awakening-which is, at the same time, an
awakening to myth-was the critical role assigned to humor, sometimes humor
of an infernal kind. "This was one way in which the documentary and the artistic,
the sociological and the theological, were to meet head-on.
To speak of awakening was to speak of the "afterlife of works," something
broUght to pass through the medium of the "'dialectical image." The latter is
Benjamin's central tenn, in The Arcade; Project, for the historical object of inter­
pretation: that which, under the divinatory gaze of the collector, is taken up into
the collector's own particular time and place, thereby throwing a pointed light on
what has been. into a present moment that semlS to be waiting just
for it-"'actualized," as Benjamin likes to say-the moment from the past comes
alive as never before. In this way, the "now" is itself experienced as preformed in
the "' then," as its distillation- thus the leading motif of "precursors" in the text.
The hist orical object is rebonl as such into a present day capable of receiving it,
of suddenly "recognizing" it. "This is the fanlous "now of recognizability" a eht
tier ErAennharAe-it), which has the character of a Iighming Bash. In the dusty,
cluttered corridors of the arcades, where street and interior are one, .historical
time is broken up into kaleidoscopic distractions and momentary come-ons,
myriad displays of ephemera, thresholds for the passage of what Gerard de
Nerval (in Aurilia) calls "the ghOSts of material things." Here, at a distance from
what is nonnally meant by "progress," is the ur-histOrical, collective redemption
of lost time, of the rimes embedded in the spaces of things.
The German edition of the Pauagen-Werk contains-besides the two exposes we
have mentioned, the long series of convolutes that follow, the "Erste Notizen"
(here translated as "Flnlt Sketches") and "Friihe EnlWiirfe" ("Early Drafts") at the
end-a ....realth of supplementary material relating to the genesis of 17u Arcades
Project. From this textual-oitical apparatus, drawn on for the Translators' Notes, r
we have extracted three additional sets of preliminary drafts and notations and
[

translated them in the Addenda; we have also reproduced the introduction by the
German editOr, Rolfiiedemann, as well as an account of Benjamin' s last days
written by Lisa Fittko and printed in the original English at the end of the
German edition. Omitted from our volume are some 100 pages of excerpts from
letters to and from Benjamin, docwnenting the growth of the project (the major­
ity of these letters appear elsewhere in English); a partial bibliography, compiled
by TIedemann, of 850 works cited in the "Convolutes"; and, finally, precise
descriptions of Benjamin' s manuscripts and manuscript variants (see translators'
initial note to the "Convolutes"). In an elTon to respect the unique constitution of
these manuscripts, we have adopted Tiedemann's practice of using angle brack­
ets to indicate editorial insertions into the text.
A salient feature of the German edition of Benjamin's "Convolutes"
("'Aufzeiclmungen und Materialien") is the use of two different typefaces: a larger
one for his reBections in German and a smaller one for his numerous citations in
French and German. According to Tiedemann's introduction, the larger type was
used for entries containing significant conunentary by Benjamin. (In "First
Sketches," the two different typefaces are used to demarcate canceled passages.)
This typographic distinction, designed no doubt for the convenience of readers,
although it is without textual basis in Benjamin' s manuscript, has been main­
tained in the English translation. have chosen, however, to use typefaces
differing in style rather than in size, so as to avoid the hierarchical implication of
the German edition (the privileging of Benjamin' s re.8ections over his citations,
and, in general, of German over French). What Benjamin seems to have con­
ceived was a dialectical relation-a fonnal and thematic interfusion of citation
and commentary. It is an open, societary relation, as in the protocol to the
imaginary world inn (itself an unacknowledged citation from Baudelaire's
Paradis artificiels) mentioned in the "Convolutes" atJ75,2.
As for the bilingual character of the text as a whole, this has been, if not
entirely eliminated in the English-language edition, then necessarily reduced to
merely the citation of the original titles of Benjamin's sources. (Previously pub­
lished translations of these sources have been used, and duly noted, wherever
possible; where two or more published translations of a passage are available, we
have tried to choose the one best suited to Benjamin's context. ) In most cases we
have regularized the citation of year and place of book publication, as well as
volunle and issue number of periodicals; bits of infonnation, such as first names,
have occasionally been supplied in angle brackets. Otherwise, Benjamin's irregu­
lar if relatively scrupulous editorial practices have been preserved.
As a funher aid to readers, the English-language edition of 1"he Arcades Projut
includes an extensive if not exhaustive "Guide to Names and TemlS"; translators'
notes intended to help contextualize Benjamin's citations and reflections; and
cross-references serving to link particular items in the "FIest Sketches" and "Early
Drafts" to corresponding entries in the "Convolutes."
Translation duties for this edition were divided as follows: Kevin McLaughlin
translated the Expose of 1939 and the previously unttanslated French passages
in Convolutes A-C, F, H, K, M (second half) , 0 , Q-I, and p-r. Howard Eiland
translated Iknjamin's German throughout and was responsible for previously
untranslated material in Convolutes D, E, G, I ,j , L, M (first half), N, P, and m, as
well as for the Translators' Foreword.
In conclusion, a word about the translation of Kon uolut. As used for the grouping
of the thirty-six alphabetized sections of the PaJJagen manuscript, this tenn, it
would seem, derives not from Benjaniln himself but from his friend Adorno (this
according to a communication from Rolf Tiedemann, who studied with
Adorno). It was Adorno who first sifted through the manuscript of the "Aufzeich­
nungen und Materia1ien," as Tiedemann later called it, after it had been hidden
away by Georges Bataille in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France during the
Second \r\brld War and then retrieved and delivered to New York at the end of
1947. In Germany, the term Konvolut has a common philological application: it
refers to a larger or smaller assemblage-literally, a bundle-of manuscripts or
printed materials that belong together. The noun "convolute" in English means
"something of a convoluted form." VW:: have chosen it as the translation of the
German term over a number of other possibilities, the most prominent being
"folder," "file," and "sheaf." The problem with these more common English
terms is that each carries inappropriate connotations, whether of office supplies,
computerese, agriculture, or archery. "Convolute" is strange, at least on first
acquaintance, but so is Iknjamin's projea and its principle of sectioning. Aside
from its desirable closeness to the German rubric, which. we have suggested, is
both philologically and historically legitimated, it remains the most precise and
most evocative tenn for designating the elaboratdy intertwined coUecuons of
"notes and materials" that make up the central division of this most various and
colorful ofIknjaminian texts.
The translators are grateful to the National Endowment for the Humani ties for a
two-year grant in suppon of the translation, and to the Dean of the Graduate
School of Brown University, Itder Estrup, for a generous publication subven­
tion. Special thanks are due Michael W. Jennings for checking the entire manu­
script of the translation and making many vaJuable suggestions. VW:: are funher
indebted to Wmfried Menninghaus and Susan Bernstein for reading portions of
the manuscript and offering excellent advice. Rolf Tiedemann kindly and
promptly answered our inquiries concerning specific problems. The reviev.'t.TS
enlisted by Harvard University Press to evaluate the tranSlation also provided
much help with some of the more difficult passages. Other scholars who gener­
ously provided bibliographic information are named in the relevant Translators'
Notes. Our work has greauy benefited at the end from the resourceful , vigilant
editing of Maria Ascher and at every stage from the for:esight and discerning
judgment of Lindsay Waters.
POSES
Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century
<Expose of 1935>
The waters aR blue, the plants pink; the evening is SWttt to
look on;
One goes for a walk; the (;ramUs damn go for a walk; behind
thc:m stroll the petius
- Nguyen Trong ffiep, Pans, Ulpitak tk fa Frail"; Rtctl ffl ck IJUJ
(Hanoi. 1897), poem 25
I. Fourier, or the Arcades
The magic columns of these palaces
Show to the amateur on all sides,
In the objects their porticos display,
That industry is the rival of the am.
- ){OUIXIJIIX Tabkau ck Paris (Paris, 1828), vol. 1, p. Xl
Most of the Paris arcades come intO being in the decade and a half after 1822.
The first condition for their is the boom in the textile trade. Magasins
de nouveau/h, the first establishments to keep large stocks of merchandise on the
premises, make their appearance, I They are the forerulUler5 of department
stores. This was the period of which Balzac wrote: "The great poem of display
chants its stanzas of color from the Church of the Madeleine to the Fbne Saint­
IXnis.'" The arcades are a center of commerce in luxury items. In fitting them
Out, art enters lhe service of the merchant. Contemporaries never tire of admir­
ing them, and for a long time they remain a drawing point for foreigners. An
llIuJirated Guide /0 Paris says: "These arcades, a recent invention of industrial
luxury, are gl ass-roofed, marble·paneled corridors extending through whole
blocks of buildings, whose owners have joined together for such enterprises.
Lining both sides of these corridors, which get thei r light from above, are the
most elegant shops, so that the jJaJJage is a city, a world in miniature." The
arcades are the scene of the first gas lighting.
The second condition for the emergence of the arcades is the beginning of iron
construction. The Empire saw in this technology a contribution to the revival of
architecture in the classical Greek sense. The architectural theorist Boetticher
expresses the general view of the matter when he says that, "with regard to the
art fonns of the new system, the formal principle of the Hellenic mode" must
come to prevail.
s
Empire is the style of revolutionary terrorism, for which the
state is an end in itself. just as Napoleon failed to understand the functional
naoore of the state as an instrument of domination by the bourgeois class, so the
architects of his time failed to understand the functional nature of iron, with
which the constructive principle begins its domination of architecture. These
architects design supports resembling Pompeian columns, and factories that imi­
tate residential houses, just as later the first railroad stations will be modeled on
chalets. "Construction plays the role of the subconscious.>U Nevertheless, the
concept of engineer, which dates from the revolutionary wars, starts to gain
ground, and the rivalry begins between builder and decorator, Ecole Polytech­
nique and Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
For the first time in the history of architecture, an arti6cia1 building materia]
appears: iron. It undergoes an evolution whose tempo will accelerate in the
COUTSC: of the century. 11tis development enters a decisive new phase when it
becomes clear that the locomotive-on which experiments have been conducted
since the end of the 1820s-is compatible only with iron tracks. The rail be;.
comes the first prefabricated iron component, the precursor of the girder. Iron is
avoided in home construction but used in arcades, exhibition halls, train Sta­
tions-buildings that serve transitory purposes. At the same time, the range of
architecrural applications for glass expands, although the social prerequisites for
its widened application as building materia] will come to the fore only a hundred
years later. In Scheerbart's Glasarchitdtur (1914), it still appears in the COntext of
utopia.
s
Each epoch dreams the ont: to rouow-.
-Michdct, "AvaW-! Avenir!'"
to the form of the new means of production, which in the begin­
rung IS still ruled by the form of the old (Marx), are images in the collective
in which the old and the new interpenetrate. These images are
:ns
h
una.ges; In them the coll ective seeks both to overcome and to transfigure the
unmatunty of the social product and the inadequacies in the social organization
of production. At the same time, what emerges in these wish images is the
resolute effort to distance oneself from all that is antiquated- which includes,
however, the recent past. These tendencies deflect the imagination (which is
given impetus by the new) back upon the primal past. In the dream in which t'.ach
epoch entertains images of its successor, the latter appears \\-edded to elements of
primal history < is, to elements of a classless society. And the
experiences of such a society-as stored in the unconscious of the collective­
engender, through interpenetration with what is new, the utopia that has left its
trace in a thousand configurations of life, from enduring edifices to passing
-
fashions.
These relations are disttmible in the utopia conceived by Fourier. Its secret cue
is the advent of machines. But this fact is not directly expressed in the Fourierist
literature, which takes, as its point of departure, the amorality of the business
world and the false morality enlisted in its service. The pha1anstery is designed to
restore human beings to relationships in which morality becomes superfluous.
The highly complicated organization of the phaJanstery appears as machinery.
The meshing of the passions, the intricate collaboration ofj>aJJioru miCIJnute; with
the j>aJJion ClJhaJilte, is a primitive contrivance formed-on analogy with the
machine-from materials of psychology. This mechanism made of men pro­
duces the land of milk and honey, the primeval wish symbol that Fourier's utopia
has 6l1ed with new life.
In the arcades, Fourier saw the architectural canon of the pha1anstery. Their
reactionary metamorphosis with him is characteristic: whereas they originally
serve commercial ends, they become, for him, places of habitation. The phalan·
stery becomes a city of arcades. Fourier establishes, in the Empire's austere world
of fonns, the colorful idyll of Biedermeier. Its brilliance persists, however faded,
up through Zola, who takes up Fourier's ideas in his book Trauai/, just as he bids
farewell to the arcades in his 1lztrt;e Raquin.-Marx came to the defense of
Fourier in his critique of Carl Griin, emphasizing the fonner's "colossal concep­
tion of man.") He also directed attention to Fourier's humor. In fact,jean Paul, in
his "Levana," is as closely allied to Fourier the pedagogue as Scheerbart, in his
GiaJJ Architecture, is to Fourier the utopian.·
U. Daguerre, or the Panoramas
Sun, look out for yoursdf!
-A.J. WJatt, (hum IiUirafm (Paris. 1870), p. 374
just as architecture, with the first appearance of iron construction, begins to
outgrow art, so does painting, in its rum, with the first appearantt of the pano­
r:un
as
. The high point in the diffusion of panoramas coincides with the introdUC-1
Mn of arcades. One sought tirelessly, through technical devices, to make
panoramas the scenes of a perfect imitation of nature. An attempt was made to
reprodutt the changing daylight in the landscape, the rising of the moon, the
rush of waterfalls. gacques·Louis> David counsels his pupils to draw from nature
as it is shown in panoramas. In their attempt to produce deceptively lifelike
changes in represented naoore, the panoramas prepare the way not only for
photography but for <silent> film and sound film.
Contemporary with the panoramas is a panoramic literaoore. Le Liure de;
cent-et-un [TIle Book of a Hundred-and-One], Le; Franrau peinLJ par eux-mime;
[The French Painted by Themselves], Le Diab/e aPari; [TIle Devil in Paris], and
La Grande Ville [The Big City] belong to this. Thcse books prepare the belletristic
collaboration for which Girardin, in the 1830s, will create a home in the feuille­
ton. They consist of individuaJ sketches, whose anecdotal fonn corresponds to
the panoramas' plastically arranged foreground, and whose infonnational base
corresponds to their painted background. This literature is also sociaJly pano­
rami c. For the last time, the worker appears, isolated from his class, as part of the
setting in an idyll.
Announcing an upheaval in the relation of an to technology, panoramas are at
the same time an expression of a new attitude toward life. The city dweller,
whose political supremacy over the provinces is demonstrated many times in the
course of the century, attempts to bring the countryside into town. In panoramas,
the city opens out to landscape-as it will do later, in subtler fashion, for the
fi1neurs. Daguerre is a srudent of the panorama painter Prevost, whose estab­
lishment is located in the Passage des Panoramas. Description of the panoramas
of Prevost and Daguerre. In 1839 Daguerre's panorama bums down. In the same
year, he announces the invention of the daguerreotype.
Arago presents photography in a speech to the National Assembly.
He assigns it a place in the history of technology and prophesies its scientific
applications. On the other side, artists begin to debate its artistic value. Photogra­
phy leads to the extinction of the great profession of portrait miniarurist. This
happens not just for economic reasons. The early photograph was artistically
superior to the miniature portrait. The technical grounds for this advantage lie in
the long exposure time, which requires of a subject the highest concentration; the
social grounds for it lie in the fact that the first photographers belonged to the
avant-garde, from which most of their clientele came. Nadar's superiority to his
colleagues is shown by his attempt to take photographs in the Paris sewer system:
for the first time, discoveries were demanded of the lens. Its importance becomes
still greater as, in view of the new technological and sociaJ reality, the subjective
strain in pictoriaJ and graphic infonnation is called into question.
The world exhibition of 1855 offers for the first time a speciaJ display called
"Photography." In the same year, Wiertz publishes his great article on photogra·
phy, in which he defines its task as the philosophical enlightenment of painting.'
This "enlightenment" is understood, as his own paintings show, in a political
sense. Wiertz can be characterized as the first to demand, if not actually foresee,
the use of photographic montage for politica1 agitation. With the increasing \
scope of communications and transport, the infonnational value of painting di­
minishes. 10 reaction to photography, painting begins to stress the elements of
color in the picture. By the time Impressionism yields to Cubism, painting has
created for itself a broader domain into which, for the time being, photography
cannOt follow. For its part, photography greatly extends the sphere of commodity \
exchange, from mid-century onward, by Hooding the market with countless im­
ages of figures, landscapes, and events which had previously been available
either not at all or only as pictures for individual customers. To increase turnover, I
it renewed its subject matter through modish variations in camera technique­
innovatioHs that will detemline the subsequent history of photography.
Ill. Gr andville, or the World Exhibitions
"'lb. when all the world from Paris to China
Pays heed to your doctrine, 0 divine Saint-Simon,
The glorious Golden Age will be reborn.
Rivers will Bow with chocolate and tea,
Sheep roasted whole will frisk on the plain,
And sauteed pike will swim in the Seine.
Fricassttd spinach will grow on the ground,
Garnished with crushed fried croutons;
The trees will bring forth apple compotes,
And fanners will harvest boots and coau.
It will snow wine, it will rain chickens,
And duds cooked with turnips will fall from the sky.
and Vanderburdt, u,uis-Brottu d k Saillt-Sinwnicz
(lbUu-e du Pa!ais·Royal, February 27, 1832)10
\r\brld exlubitions are places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetish. "Europe is
off to view the merchandise," says Taine in 1855.
11
The world exhibitions are
preceded by national exhibitions of industry, the first of which takes place on the
Champ de Mars in 1798. It arises from the wish "to entertain the working classes,
and it becomes for them a festival of emancipation."12 The worker occupies the
foreground, as customer. The framework of the entertainment industry has not
yet taken shape; the popular festival provides this. Chapw's speech on industry
opens the 1798 exhibition.-The Saint-5imonians, who envision the industriali­
zation of the earth, take up the idea of world exhibitions. Chevalier, the
first authority in the new field, is a student of Enfantin and editor of the Saint­
"
Simonian newspaper I.e Globe. The Saint-5imonians anticipated the development
of the global economy, but not the class snuggle. Next to their active participa­
"
tion in industrial and commercial enterprises around the middJe of the cenmry
stands their helplessness on all questions concerning the proletariat.
\\brld exhibitions glorify the exchange vaJue of the commodity. They create a
framework in which its use value recedes intO the background. They open a
phantaSmagoria which a person enters in order to be distracted. The entertain­
ment industry makes this easier by elevating the person to the level of the
commodity. He surrenders to its manipulations while enjoying his alienation
from himself and others.- The enthronement of the commodity, with its luster
of distraction, is the secret theme of Grandville' s art. This is consistent with the
split between utopian and cynica.1 elements in his work. Its ingenuity in repre­
senting inanimate objects corresponds to what Marx ca1Is the "theological nice­
ties" of the commodity.13 They are manifest clearly in the spiciaJili--a category of
goods which appears at this time in the luxuries industry. Under
pencil, the whole of nature is transfonned into specialties. He presents them 10
the same spirit in which the advertisement (the tenn ric/arne also originates at this
point) begins to present its articles. He ends in madness.
Fashion: "Madam Death! Madam Deathl"
- Leopardi, KOialogue: bcl....'CCn Fashion alld
impinge 011 social ones. In the: formation of his private environment, both are
kept out. From this arise the phantasmagorias of the interior- which, for the
private man, represents the universe. In the interior, he brings together the far
\r\Qrld t:xhibitions propagate the universe of commodities. Grandville's fantasies
away and the long ago. His living room is a box in the theater of the world.
confer a commodity character on the universe. They modernize it. Saturn's ring
becomes a cast-iron balcony on which the inhabitants of Saturn take the evening
Excursus on Jugendstil. The shattering of the interior occurs viaJugendstil
air. The literary counterpart to this graphic utopia is found in the books of the
around the tum of the century. Of course, according to its own ideology, the
Fourierist naturalist Toussenel.-Fashion prescribe! the ritual according to which
Jugendstil movement seems to bring with it the co":,wnmation .0: the.
the commodity fetish demands to be worshipped. Grandville extends the author­
The transfiguration of the solitary soul appears to be Its goal. indIVIdualism IS Its
ity of fashion to objects of everyday use, as well as to the cosmos. In taking it to
theory. With van de Velde, the house becomes an expression of the personality.
an extreme, he reveals its nature. Fashion stands in opposition to the organic. It
Ornament is to this house what the signature is to a painting. But the real
couples the living body to the inorganic world. To the living, it defends the rights
meaning of Jugendstil is not expressed in this ideology. It represents the last
of the corpse. The fetishism that succumbs to the sex appeal of the inorganic is its
attempted sortie of an art besieged in its ivory tower by technology. This attempt
vital nerve. The cult of the commodity presses such fetishism into its service.
mobilizes all the reserves of inwardness. They find their expression in the medi­
For the Paris world t:xhibition of 1867, Victor Hugo issues a manifesto: "To the
wnistic language of the line, in the Hower as symbol of a naked vegetal nature
Peoples of Europe.n Earlier, and more unequivocally, their interests had been
confronted by the technologically anned world. The new elements of iron con­
championed by delegations of French workers, of which the first had been sent to
struction-girder forms-preoccupyJugendstil.1n ornament, it endeavors to win
the London world exhibition of 1851 and the second, numbering 750 delegates,
back these forms for art. Concrete presents it with new possibilities for plastic
to that of 1862. The latter delegation was of indirect importance for Marx' s
creation in architecture. Around this time, the real gravitational center of living
founding of the International \r\brkingmen's Association.- The phantasmagoria
space shifts to the office. The irrca1 center makes its place in the home. The
consequences ofJugendstil are depicted in Ibsen's MtzJter Buikkr: the attempt by
of capitalist culrure attains its most radiant unfolding in the world exhibition of
the individual, on the strength of his inwardness, to vie with technology leads to
1867. The Second Empire is at the height of its power. Paris is acknowledged as
the capital of luxury and fashion. Offenbach sets the rhytlun of Parisian life. The
his downfall.
operetta is the ironic utopia of an enduring reign of capital.
I be:lieve ... in my soul: the lbing.
- Uoll Dc:ubc:l, Ont/lffl (Paris. 1929), p. 193
IV. Loui8 Philippe, or the Interior
The head ...
On the: night table, like a ranunculus,
The interior is the asylwn of an. The collector is the true resident of the interior.
Rests.
He makes his concern the transfiguration of things. To him falls the Sisyphean
- Baudc:lain:, KUne:
task of divesting things of their commodity character by taking possession of
them. But he bestows on them only connoisseur value, rather than use value.
The collector dreams his way not only into a distant or bygone world but also
Under Louis Philippe, the private individual makes his entrance on the stage of
history. The expansion of the democratic apparatus through a new electoral law
into a better one-one in which, to be sure, human beings are no better provided
coincides with the parlianu:ntary comlption organited by Guttot. Under cover
with what they need than in the everyday world, but in which things are freed
from the drudgery of being useful.
of this cOmlption, the ruling class makes history; that is, it pursues its affairs. It
funhers railway construction in order to improve its stock holdings. It promotes
The interior is not just the universe but also the eM of the private individual.
the reign of Louis Philippe as that of the private individual managing his affairs.
To dwell means to leave traces. In the interior, these are accentuated. Coverlets
and antimacassars, cases and containers are devised in abundance; in these, the
With theJuly Revolution, the bourgeoisie realized the goals of 1789 (Marx).
For the private individual, the place of dwelling is for the first time opposed to
traces of the most ordinary objects of use are imprinted. Injust the same way, the
traces of the inhabitant are imprinted in the interior. Enter the detective story,
the place of "'Ork. The former constitutes itself as the interior. Its complement is
the office. The private individual, who in the office has to deal with reality, needs
which pursues these traces. Fbe, in his "Philosophy of Fumirure
n
as well as in his
the domestic interior to sustain him in his illusions. This necessity is all the more
detective fi ction, shows himself to be the first physiognomist of the domestic
interior. The criminals in early detective novels are neither gentlemen nor
pressing since he has no intention of allowing his commercial to
apaches, but private citizens of the middle class.
V. Baudelaire. or the Streets of Paris
Everything becomes an allegory for me.
-Baudelairc,
!
'0
Baudelaire's genius, which is nourished on melancholy, is an allegorical
For the first time, with Baudelaire, Paris becomes the subject of lyric poetry. This
poetry is no hymn to the homeland; rather, the gaze of the allegorist, as it falls on
the city, is the gaze of the alienated man. It is the gaze of Saneur, way
of life still conceals behind a mitigating nimbus the conung desolabOn of the
big-city dweller. The Baneur still stands on the metropolis as of
the middle class. Neither has him in its power yet. In neither 15 he at home. He
seeks refuge in the crowd. Early contributions to a of the
are found in Engels and Poe. The crowd is the veil through which the familiar
city beckons to the flineur as phantaSmagoria-now a landscape, now a.
Both become elements of the department store, which makes use of Banene Itself
to sell goods. The departtnent store is the last promenade for the San:ur.
In the flineur, the intelligentsia sets foot in the marketplace-ostensibly to look
around but in truth to find a buyer. In this intennediate stage, in which it still has
patrons' but is already beginning to familiarize itself with the market, it appears as
the hoMme. To the uncertainty of its economic position corresponds the uncer­
tainty of its political function. The latter is manifest in the
siona! conspirators, who all belong to the hoMme. ThetT nutial field of IS
the anny; later it becomes the petty bourgeoisie, occasi0n.a.tIy proletanat.
Nevertheless, this group views the true leaders of the proletanat as Its advers.ary.
The Communist Manifesto brings their political existence to an end. Baudelarre's
poetry draws its strength from the rebellious pathos of this class. He sides with
the asocial. He realizes his only sexual corrununion with a whore.
Easy the way that leads into Avemus.
-vrrgil, 1M Aroeid
' l
It is the unique provision of Baudelaire's poetry that the image of the woman and
the image of death intermingle in a third: that of Paris. The Paris poems is
a sunken city, and more submarine than subterranean. The chthoruc of
the city-its topographic fonnations, the old abandoned bed of the Serne-have
evidendy found in him a mold. Decisive for Baudelaire in the "death-frau.ght
idyll" of the city, however, is a social, a modem substrate. The modem 15 a
principal accent of his poetry. A:s it the et ideal"1'
But precisely the modem, la moderlllti, IS always cIWlg pnmal history. Here,
occurs through the ambiguity peculiar to the social relations and products of this
epoch. Ambiguity is the manifest imaging of dialectic, the law of dialectics at a
standstill. This standstill is utopia and the dialectical image, therefore, dream
image. Such an image is afforded by the commodity per se: as fetish. Such an
image is presented by the arcades, which are house no less street. Such
an image is the prostitute- seller and sold in one.
I travel in order to get to know my geography.
- Note of a madman, in Man:cl Uri ,lin lufous (Paris, 1907). p. 13 1
TIle last poem of U s F/eurs du mal: "Lc Voyage.'" "Death, old admiral, up anchor
now." The last journey of the Saneur: death. Its destination: the new. "Deep in
the Unknown to find the new!"' '' Newness is a quality independent of the use
value of the commodity. It is the origin of the illusory appearance that belongs
inalienably to images produced by the collective unconscious. It is the quintes­
sence of that false consciousness whose indefatigable agent is fashion. 'Ibis sem­
blance of the new is reSected, like one mirror in another, in the semblance of the
ever recurrent. The product of this reSection is the phantaSmagoria of "cu1tural
history," in which the bourgeoisie enj oys its false consciousness to the full. The
art that begins to doubt its taSk and ceases to be "inseparable from <••• ) utility"
{Baudelaire)'9 must make novelty into its highest value. The arbiter novarum rerum
for such an art becomes the snob. He is to art what the dandy is to fashion.-Just
as in the seventeenth century it is allegory that becomes the canon of dialectical
images, in the nineteenth century it is novelty. Newspapers Sourish, along with
magasins de nouveautb . The press organizes the market in spirirual values, in
which at first there is a boom. Nonconformists rebel against consigning art to the
marketplace. They rally round the banner of ['art pour /'art. From this watchword
derives the conception of the "total work of art"-the Gesamtkunstwerk-which
wou1d seal art off from the developments of teclmology. The solemn rite with
which it is celebrated is the pendant to the distraction that transfigures the com­
modity. Both abstract from the social existence of human beings. Baudelaire
succumbs to the rage for Wagner.
VI. Haussmann, or the Barricades
I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and all things great;
Beautiful nature, on which great art rests-
How it enchants the ear and channs the eye!
I love spring in blossom: women and roses.
- Baron Haussmann, OJ'!foJSilJ1l d'un filln dnJrou uirox'llJ
The Howery realm of decorations,
The chann of landscape, of architecture,
And all the effect of scenery rest
Solely on the law of perspective.
- Franz BOhle, 'llItal"-Caltchism uJ (Munich), p. 74
Haussmann's ideal in city planning consisted of long perspectives down broad
straight thoroughfares. Such an ideal corresponds to the tendency-corrunon in
the nineteenth century-to ennoble teclUlological necessities through artistic
ends. The instirutions of the bourgeoisie' s worldly and spirirual dominance were
to find their apotheosis within the framework of the boulevards. Before their
completion, boulevards were draped across with canvas and unveiled like monu­
ments.-Haussmann's acnvtty is linked to Napoleonic imperialism. Louis
Napoleon promotes invesnnent capital, and Paris experiences a rash of specula­
tion. Trading on the stock exchange displaces the fonus of gambling handed
down from feudal society. The phantasmagorias of space to which the Raneur
devotes himself find a counterpart in the phantasmagorias of time to which the
gambler is addicted. Gambling converts time into a narcotic. <Paul) Lafargue
explains gambling as an imitation in miniature of the mysteries of economic
Ructuation?l The expropriations carried out under Haussmann call forth a wave
of fraudulent speculation. The rulings of the Coun of Cassation, which are
inspired by the bourgeois and Orleanist opposition, increase the financial risks of
Haussmannization.
Haussmann tries to shore up his dictatorship by placing Paris under an emer­
gency regime. In 1864, in a speech before the National Assembly, he vents his
hatred of the rootless urban popuJation, which keeps increasing as a result of his
projects. Rising rents drive the proletariat into the suburbs. The quarriers of Paris
in this way lose their distinctive physiognomy. The "red belt" fonus. Haussmann
gave himself the title of "demolition artist," artiste dimQIU$wr. H e viewed his
work as a calling, and emphasizes this in his memoirs. Meanwhile he estranges
the Parisians from their city. They no longer feel at home there, and start to
become conscious of the inhuman character of the metropolis. Maxime Du
Camp' s monumental work Paris owes its inception to this consciousness.72 The
]irimUuies d'un Hauumannisi give it the fOIm of a biblicallament.:13
The true goal of Haussmann's projects was to secure the city against civil war.
He wanted to make the erection of barricades in Paris impossible for all time.
With the same end in mind, Louis Philippe had already introduced wooden
paving. Nonetheless, barricades played a role in the February Revolution. Engels
studies the tactics of barricade fighting. 2-4 Haussmann seeks to neutralize these
tactics on two fronts. Widening the streets is designed to make the erection of
barricades impossible, and new streets are to furnish the shonest route between
the barracks and the workers' districts. Contemporaries christen the operation
"strategic embellishment."
Reveal to these depraved,
o Republic, by foiling their plots,
\bur great Medusa face
Ringed by red lightning.
- \\brkc:rs' sOllg from about 1850, in Adolf Stahr, Zwei
M01U/le ;1I Pam (Oldenburg, 1851 ), vol. 2, p. 1992:1
The barricade is resurrected during the CommWle. It is stronger and better
secured than ever. It stretches across the great boul evards, often reaching a height
of two stories, and shields the trenches behind it. J ust as the Communist Mani.fos/o
ends the age of professional conspirators, so the Commune puts an end to the
phantasmagoria holding sway over the early years of the proletariat. It dispels the
illusion that the task of the proletarian revolution is to complete the work of 1789
hand in hand with the bourgeoisie. This illusion dominates the period 183 1­
1871, from the Lyons uprising to the Commune. The bourgeoisie never shared in
this error. Its battle against the social rights of the proletariat dates back to the
great Revolution, and converges with the philanthropic movement that gives it
cover and that is in its heyday under Napoleon III. Under his reign, this move­
ment' s monumental work appears: Le Play's Ouun"ers europ(rns [European "\-\brk­
ers].:lfi Side by side with the concealed position of philanthropy, the bourgeoisie
has always maintained openly the position of class warfare.:n As early as 1831, in
the Journal de; dibau, it acknowledges that "every manufacturer lives in his
factory like a plantation owner among his slaves." If it is the misfonune of the
rebellions of old that no theory of revolution directs their course, it is
also this absence of theory that, from another perspective, makes possible their
spontaneous energy and the enthusiasm with which they set about establishing a
new society. TIlls enthusiasm, which reaches its peak in the Commune, wins over
to the working class at times the best elements of the bourgeoisie, but leads it in
the end to succumb to their worst elements. Rimbaud and Courbet declare their
suppon for the Commune. The burning of Paris is the worthy conclusion to
Haussmann's work of destruction.
My good father had been in Paris.
-Karl Gutzkow, Briefl aIlS Paro (Leipzig, 1842), vol. I, p. 58
Balzac was the first to speak of the ruins of the But it was Surreal­
ism that first opened our eyes to them. The development of the forces of produc­
tion shattered the wish symbols of the previous century, even before the
monuments representing them had collapsed. In the nineteenth century this
development worked to emancipate the fonus of consnuction from art,just as in
the sixteenth century the sciences freed themselves from philosophy. A start is
made with architecture as engineered consnuction. Then comes the reproduc­
tion of nature as photography. The creation of fantasy prepares to become prac­
ticaJ as commercial art. Literature submits to montage in the feuilleton. All these
products are on the point of entering the market as commodities. But they linger
on the threshold. From this epoch derive the arcades and in/in"eurs, the exhibition
halls and panoramas. They are residues of a dream world. The realization of
dream elements, in the course of waking up, is the paradigm of dialecticaJ think­
ing. Thus, dialectical thinking is the organ of historical awakcning. Every epoch,
in fact , not only dreams the one to follow but, in dreaming, precipitates its
awakening. It bears its end within itself and unfolds it-as Hegel already no­
ticed-by cunning. With the destabilizing of the market economy, .....e begin to
recognize the monuments of the bourgeoisie as ruins even before they have
crumbled.
Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century
Expose <of 1939>
Inl roduction
History is likeJanus; it has two faces. Whether it loolu at the put or at the prc:sc:nt, it
sees the same things.
- M a x i m ~ Ou Camp. Pam, vol. 6, p. 315
The subject of this book is an illusion expressed by Schopenhauer in the reUaw­
ing formula : to sdze the essence of history, it suffices to compare Herodotus and
the morning newspaper.
l
What is expressed hen: is a Ceding of vertigo charac­
teristic of the nineteenth century' s conception of history. It corresponds to a
viewpoint according to which the course of the world is an endless series of facts
congealed in the form of things. The characteristic residue of this conception is
what has been called the "History of Civilization," which makes an inventory,
point by point. of humanity's life fonns and creations. The riches thus amassed
in the aerarium of civilization henceforth appear as though identified for all time.
This conception of history minimizes the fact that such riches owe not omy their
existence but also their transmission to a constant effon of society-an elTon,
moreover, by which these riches are strangely altered. Our investigation proposes
to show how, as a consequence of this reifying representation of civilitation, the
new fonns of behavior and the new economically and technologically based
creations that we owe to the nineteenth century enter the universe of a phantas­
magoria. These creations undergo this "illumination" not only in a theoretical
manner, by an ideological transposition, but also in the immediacy of their per­
ceptible presence. They are manifest as phantasmagorias. Thus appear the ar­
cades-first entry in the field of iron construction; thus appear the world
exhibitions, whose link to the entenairuncnt industry is significant. Also included
in this order of phenomena is the experience of the £Iineur, who abandons
himself to the phantasmagorias of the marketplace. Corresponding to these:
phantasmagorias of the market, where people appear only as types, are the
phantasmagorias of the interior, which are constituted by man's imperious need
to leave the imprint of his private individual existence on the rooms he inhabits.
As for the phantasmagoria of civilization itself, it found its champion in Hauss­
mann and its manifest expression in his transfonnations ofParis.-Nevertheless,
the pomp and the splendor with which commodity-producing society surrounds
itself, as well as its illusory sense of security, are nOt immune to dangers; the
collapse of the Second Empire and the Commune of Paris remind it of that. In
the same period, the most dreaded adversary of this society, Blanqui, revealed to
it, in his last piece of writing, the terrifying features of this phantasmagoria.
Humanity figures there as damned. Everything new it could hope for tums out
to be a reality that has always been present; and this newness will be as little
capable of furnishing it with a liberating solution as a new fashion is capable of
rejuvenating society. Blanqui' s cosmic speculation conveys this lesson: that hu­
manity will be prey to a mythic anguish so long as phantasmagoria occupies a
place in it.
A. Fourier, or t be Arcades
I
The magic columns of these palau
Show to enthusiasts from all pans,
With the objects their porticos display,
1bat industry is the rival of the am.
- NoUIWQI/It 'T"ableQI/X de PQm (Puis, 1828), p. Xl
Most of the Paris arcades are built in the fifteen years foll owing 1822. The first
condition for their development is the boom in the textile trade. Magasiru de
nouveoutis, the first establishments to keep large stocks of merchandise on the
premises, make their appearance. They are the forerunners of department stores.
TIlls is the period of which Balz.ac writes: "The great poem of display chants its
stanzas of color from the Church of the Madeleine to the Porte Saint-Denis." The
arcades are centers of commerce in luxury items. In fitting them out, art enters
the service of the merchant. Contemporaries never tire of admiring them. For a
long time they remain an attraction for tourists. An Illustrated Guide to Paris says:
"These arcades, a recent invention of industrial luxury, are glass-roofed, marble­
paneled corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners
have joined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of the arcade, which
gets its light from above, are the most elegant shops, so that the passage is a city,
a world in miniature." The arcades are the scene of the first attempts at gas
lighting.
The second condition for the emergence of the arcades is the beginning of iron
construction. Under the Empire, this technology was seen as a contribution to
the revival of architecrure in the classical Greek sense. The architectural theorist
Boetticher expresses the general view of the matter when he says that, "with
regard to the art fonos of the new system, the Hellenic mode" must come to
prevail. The Empire style is the style of revolutionary terrorism, for which the
state is an end in itself. J ust as Napoleon failed to understand the functional
II
nature of the state as an insuument of domination by the bourgeoisie, so the
architects of his time failed to understand the functional nature of iron, with
which the constructive principle begins its domination of architecture.
architects design SUppolU resembling Fbmpcian columns, and factories that imi­
tate residential houses, just as later the firSt railroad stations will assume the look
of chalets. Construction plays the role of the subconscious. Nevertheless, the
concept of engineer, which dates from the revolutionary wars, starts to gain
ground, and the rivalry begins between builder and decorator, Ecole Fblytech­
nique and Ecole des Beaux-Arts.-For the first time since the Romans, a new
artificial building material appears: iron. It will undergo an evolution whose pace
will accelerate in the course of the cennny. This development enters a decisive
new phase when it becomes clear that the locomotive-object of the most diverse
experiments since the years 1828-1829-usefully functions only on iron rails.
The rail becomes the first prefabricated iron component, the precursor of the
girder. Iron is avoided in home construction but used in arcades, exhibition halls,
train stations-buildings that serve transitory purposes.
It i.! easy to understand that every IIWS·type "interest" which
asserts itsclfhistorically goes far beyond its real limits in the
"idea" or "imagination," when it firSt comes on the scene.
- Marx and Engels, Die Mi/itt Nmiliil
The secret cue for the Fourierist utopia is the advent of machines. The phalan­
stery is designed. to restore human beings to a system of rel ationships in which
morality becomes superfiuous. Nero, in such a context, would become a more
useful member of society than Fenelon. Fourier does not dream of relying on
virtue for this; rather, he relies on an efficient functioning of society, whose
motive forces are the passions. In the gearing of the passions, in the complex
meshing of the pa.ssi()TU micanistes with the pa.s.sion cobo.liste, Fourier imagines the
collective psychology as a clockwork mechanism. Fourierist hannony is the nec­
essary product of this combinatory play.
Fourier introduces into the Empire's world of austere fonos an idyll colored by
the style of the 1830s. He devises a system in which the products of his colorful
vision and of his idiosyncratic treatment of numbers blend together. Fourier's
"harmonies" are in no way akin to a mystique of numbers taken from any other
tradition. They are in fact direct outcomes of his own pronouncements-lucubra­
tions of his organizational imagination, which was very highly developed. Thus,
he foresaw how significant meetings 'would become to the citizen. For the phalan·
stery' s inhabitants, the day is organized nOt around the home but in large halls
sinlilar to those of the Stock Exchange, where meetings are arranged by brokers.
In the arcades, Fourier recognittd the arc.hitecrural canon of the phalanstery.
TIils is what distinguishes the "empire" character of his utopia, which Fourier
himself naively acknowledges: "111e societarian state will be all the more brilliant
at its inception for having been so long deferred. C rttce in the age of Solon and
Pericles could already have undertaken it.", The arcades, which originally were
designed to serve commercial ends, become dwelling places in Fourier. The
phalanstery is a city composed of arcades. In this ville en pa.uages, the engineer's
constrUction takes on a phantasmagorical character. The "city of arcades" is a
dream that will Chaml the fancy of Parisians well into the second half of the
cenrury. As late as 1869, Fourier's "street-galleries" provide the blueprint for
Moilin's Paris en l'an 2000.' Here the city assumes a structure that makes it- with
its shops and apartments-the ideal backdrop for the fueur.
Marx took a stand against Carl CrUn in order to defend Fourier and to
accentuate his "colossal conception of man.") He considered Fourier the only
man besides HegeJ to have revealed the essential mediocrity of the petty bour·
geois. The systematic overcoming of this type in Hegel corresponds to its humor­
ous annihilation in Fourier. One of the most remarkable features of the Fourierist
utOpia is that it never advocated the exploitation of narure by man, an idea that
became widespread in the following period. Instead, in Fourier, technology ap­
pears as the spark that ignites the powder of nature. Perhaps this is the key to his
strange representation of the phalanstery as propagating itself "by explosion."
The later conception of man's exploitation of nature reflects the actual exploita­
tion of man by the owners of the means of production. If the integration of the
technological into social life failed, the fault lies in this exploitation.
B. Grandville, or the World Exhibitions
I
'b, when all the world from Paris to China
Pays heed to your doctrine, 0 divine Saint-Simon,
"The glorious Golden Age will be: reborn.
Rivers will flow with chocolate and tea,
Sheep roasted whole will frisk on the plain,
And sauteed pike will swim in the Seine.
Fricasseed spinach will grow on the ground,
Garnished with crushed fried croutons;
The trees will bring forth apple compotes,
And fanners will harvest boots and coats.
It will snow wine, it will rain chickens,
And ducks cooked with turnips will fall from the sky.
a.nd Vandcrburch, lAuis-Bro"u (I k Sai"I·Sim(l"irn
(Thlitrc du Palais· Royal. February 27, 1832)
WOrld exhibitions are places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetis h. "Europe is
ofT LO view lhe merchandise," says Taine in 1855.
6
The world exhibitions were
preceded by national exhibitions of industry, the first of which took place on the
Champ de Mars in 1798. It arose from the wish "to entertain the working classes,
and it becomes for thenl a festival of emancipation."1 The workers would consti­
tute their first clientele. The frame ......o rk of the entertairunent industry has not yet
taken shape; the popular festival provides this. Chaptal's celebrated speech on
industry opens the 1798 exhibition.-The Saint-Simonians, who envision the
industrialization of the eaM, take up the idea of world exhibitions. Chevalier, the
first authority in this new field, is a student of Enfantin and editor of the Saint­
Simonian newspaper i.e Globe. The Saint-Simonians anticipated the development
of the global economy, but not the class struggle. Thus, we see that despite their
participation in industrial and conunercia1 enterprises around the middle of the
cenrury, they were helpless on all questions concerning the proletariat.
exhibitions glorify the exchange value of the conunodity. They create a
framework in which its use value becomes secondary. They are a school in which
the masses, forcibly excluded from consumption, are imbued with the exchange
value of conunodities to the point of identifying with it: "Do not touch the items
on display." exhibitions thus provide access to a phantasmagoria which a
person enters in order to be distracted. Within these divertWmlt:TIts, to which the
individual abandons himself in the framework of the entertainment industry, he
remains always an dement of a compact mass. This mass delights in amusement
parks-with their roller coasters, their "twisters," their "caterpillars"-in an atti·
tude that is pure reaction. It is thus led to that state of subjection which propa­
ganda, industrial as well as political, relies on.-The enthronement of the
conunodity, with its glitter of distractions, is the secret theme of Grandville's art.
Whence the split between its utopian and cynical elements in his work. The
subtle artifices with which it represents inanimate objects correspond to what
Marx. calls the "theological niceties" of the conunodity.' The concrete expression
of this is clearly found in the spiciaJiti-a category of goods which appears at this
time in the luxuries industry. WOrld exhibitions construct a universe of spiciaJitiJ.
The fantasies of Grandville achieve the same thing. They modernize the uni­
verse. In his work, the ring of Sarum becomes a cast-iron balcony on which the
inhabitants of Saturn take the evening air. By the same token, at world exhibi·
tions, a balcony of cast·iron would represent the ring of Sarum, and people who
venture out on it would find themselves carried away in a phantasmagoria where
they seem to have been transformed intO inhabitants of Sarum. The literary
counterpart to this graphic utopia is the work of the Fourierist savant Toussenel.
Toussenel was the narural-sciences editor for a JX>pular newspaper. His zoology
classifies the animal world according to the rule of fas hion. He considers woman
the intemlediary between man and the animals. She is in a sense the decorator of
the animal world, which, in exchange, places at her feet its plumage and its furs.
"The lion likes nothing better than having its nails trimmed, provided it is a
pretty girl that widds the scissors.'"
Fashion: "Madam Death! Madam Death!"
- Leopard!, between Fa.duon and
Fashion prescribes the rirual according to which the commodity fetish demands
to be worshipped. Grandville extends the authority of fashion to objects of
everyday use, as well as to the cosmos. In taking it to an extreme, he reveals its
narure. It couples the living body to the inorganic world. To the living, it defends
the rights of the corpse. The fetishism which thus succumbs to the sex appeal of
the inorganic is its vital nelVe. The fantasies of Grandville correspond to the
spirit of fashion that Apollinaire later described with this image: "Any material
from narure's domain can now be introduced into the composition of women's
clothes. I saw a channing dress made of corks.... Steel, wool, sandstone, and
files have suddenly entered the vestmentary arts.... They're doing shoes in
Venetian glass and hats in Baccarat crystal."l!
C. Louis Philippe, or the Interior
I
I believe ... in my soul: the 1lUng.
-Uon Deubel, CInnnu (Paris, 1929). p. 193
Under the reign of Louis Philippe, the private individual makes his into
history. For the private individual, places of d...."Clling are for the first rune op-­
posed to places of work. The former come to constirute the interior. Its comple·
ment is the office. (For its part, the office is distinguished clearly from the shop
counter, which, with its globes, wall maps, and railings, looks like a relic of the
baroque forms that preceded the rooms in taday's residences. ) The private indi­
vidual, who in the office has to deal with realities, needs the domestic interior to
sustain him in his illusions. This necessity is all the more pressing since he has no
intention of grafting onto his business interests a clear perception of his social
function. In the arrangement of his private surrounding!, he suppresses both of
these concerns. From this derive the phantasmagorias of the interior-which, for
the private individual, represents the universe. In the interior, he bring! together
remote locales and memories of the past. His living room is a box in the theater
of the world.
The interior is the asylum where art takes refuge. The collector proves to be
the true resident of the interior. He makes his concern the idealization of objects.
To him falls the Sisyphean task of divesting things of their conunoclity character
by taking possession of them. But he can bestow on them only
value, rather than use value. The collector delights in evoking a world that 15 not
j ust distant and long gone but also better-a world in which, to be sure,
beings are no better provided with what they need than in the real world, but m
which things are freed from the drudgery of being useful.
II
The head .
On the night table, like a ranunculus,

II
III
The interior is not just the universe of the private individual; it is also his eM.
Ever since the time of Louis Philippe, the bourgeois has shown a tendency to
compensate for the absence of any trace of private life in the big city. He tries to
do this within the four walls of his apartment. It is as ifhe had made it a point of
honor not to allow the traces of his everyday objects and accessories to get lost.
Indefatigably, he takes the impression of a host of objects; for his slippers and his
watches, his blankets and his umbrellas, he devises coverlets and cases. He has a
marked preference for velour and plush, which preserve the imprint of all con­
tact. In the style characteristic of the &cond Empire, the apartment becomes a
sort of cockpit. The traces of its inhabitant are molded into the interior. Hue is
the origin of the detective story, which inquires into these traces and follows these
tracks. Poe-with his "Philosophy of Furniture" and with his "new detectives"­
becomes the first physiognomist of the domestic interior. The criminals in early
detective fiction are neither gentlemen nor apaches, but simple private citizens of
the middle class ("The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale H eart," "Wtlliam Wtlson") .
This seeking for my home ... was myafBiction.... Where is­
nry home? I ask and seek and have sought for it; I have not found it.
-Nicwdle, AiH Jprad! ,Qrath/I.Jtra1
3
The liquidation of the interior took place during the last years of the nineteenth
century, in the work ofJugendstil, but it had been coming for a long time. The art
of the interior was an art of genre.Jugendstil sounds the death knell of the genre.
It rises up against the infatuation of genre in the name of a mol du Jude, of a
perpetually open·armed aspiration. Jugendstil for the first time takes into consid­
eration certain tectonic forms. It also strives to disengage them from their func­
tional relations and to present them as natural constants; it saives, in shon, to
stylize them. The new elements of iron construction-especially the girder­
command the attention of this "modem style." In the domain of ornamentation,
it endeavors to integrate these fonus into an. Concrete puts at its disposal new
potentialities for architecture. With van de VeJde, the house becomes the plastic
expression of the personality. Ornament is to this house what the signature is to a
painting. It exults in speaking a linear, mediumistic language in which the 80wer,
symbol of vegetal life, insinuates itself into the very lines of construction. (Ibe
curved line ofJugendstil appears at the same time as the title U J Fll!llrJ du mal. A
SOrt of garland marks the passage from the "Flowers of Evil" to the "souls of
flowers" in Odilon Redon and on to Swann' s ./airt: talleya. )' 4-Henceforth, as
Fourier had foreseen, the true framework for the life of the private citizen must be
sought increasingly in offices and commercial centers. The 6ctiona1 framework
for the individual's life is constituted in the private home. It is thus that The
Ma.;ler Builder takes the measure ofJugendstil. The attempt by the individual to
vie with tecllllology by relying on his ulller Sights leads to his downfall : the
architect SohlesS kills himself by plunging from his tower. IS
D. Baudelaire, or tbe Streets of Parie
I
Everything for me becomes aUegory.
- Baudelaire. MLc CygneWl6
Baudelaire' s genius, which feeds on melancholy, is an allegorical genius. With
Baudelaire, Paris becomes for the first time the subject of lyric poetry. 1hls
poetry of place is the opposite of all poetry of the soil The gaze which the
allegorical genius turns on the city betrays, instead, a profound alienation. It is
the gaze of the 8aneur, whose way of life conceals behind a beneficent mirage the
anxiety of the future inhabitants of our metropolises. The 8aneur seeks refuge in
the crowd. The crowd is the veil through which the familiar city is rransfonned
for the 8aneur into phantasmagoria. This phantasmagoria, in which the city
appears now as a landscape, now as a room. seems later to have inspired the
decor of department stores, which thus put Binerie to work for profit. In any
case, department stores are the last precincts of 8anerie.
In the person of the 8!neur, the intc:lligentsia becomes acquainted with the
marketplace. It surrenders itself to the market, thinking merely to look around;
but in fact it is already seeking a buyer. In this intennediate stage, in which it still
has patrons but is starting to bend to the demands of the market (in the guise of
the feuilleton), it constirutes the bohnne. The uncertainty of its economic position
corresponds to the ambiguity of its political function. The latter is manifest
especially clearly in the figures of the professional conspirators, who are reauitc:d
from the hohhM. Blanqui is the most remarkable representative of this class. No
one else in the nineteenth cenrury had a revolutionary authority comparable to
his. The image of Blanqui passes like a Bash of lightning through Baudelaire's
"Litanies de Satan." Nevertheless, Baudelaire's rebellion is always that of the
asocial man: it is at an impasse. The only sexual communion of his life was with
a prostirute.
II
They were the same, had risen from the same hell,
These centenarian twins.
-Bauddaire, MLes Sqx Vic:illanh
RI7
The 8aneur plays the role of scout in the marketplace. flu such, he is also the
explorer of the crowd. Within the man who abandons himself to it, the crowd
inspires a sort of drunkenness, one accompanied by very specific ill usions: the
man 8atters himself that, on seeing a passerby swept along by the crowd, he has
accurately classified him, seen straight through to the innermost recesses of his
soul-all on the basis of his external appearance. Physiologies of the time
abound in evidence of this singular conception. Balzac's work provides excellent
examples. The typical characters seen in passersby make such an impression on
III
the senses that one cannot be surprised at the curiosity to go beyond
them and capture the special singularity of each person. But the nighunare that
corresponds to the illusory perspicacity of the aforementioned physiognomist
consists in seeing those distinctive traits- traits peculiar to the person-revealed
to be nothing more than the elements of a new type; so that in the finaJ analysis a
person of the greatest individuality would turn out to be the exemplar of a type.
TIlls points to an agonizing phantasmagoria at the heart of fiinerie. Baudelaire
develops it with great vigor in "Les Sept Vieillards," a poem that deals with the
seven·fold apparition of a repulsive·looking old man. TIlls individual, presented
as always the same in his multiplicity, testifies to the anguish of the city dwcller
who is unable to break the magic circle of the type even though he cultivates the
most eccentric peculiarities. Baudelaire: describes this procession as "infernal" in
appearance. But the newness for which he was on the lookout all his life consists
in nothing other than this phantasmagoria of what is "always the same." (The
evidence one could cite to show that this poe:m transcribes the reveries of a
hashish eater in no way ""'eakeflS this interpretation. )
Ikep in the Unknown to find the new!
- Bauddain:, \byage"ll
The key to the allegorical fonn in Baudelaire is bound up with the specific
signification which the commodity acquires by virtue of its price. The singular
debasement of things through their signification, something characteristic of sev·
entttnth-century allegory, corresponds to the singular debasement of things
through their price as commodities. TIlls degradation, to which things are subject
because they can be taxed as commodities, is counterbalanced in Baudelaire by
the inestimable value of novelty. La nouveauti represents that absolute which is
no longer accessible to any interpretation or comparison. It becomes the ultimate
entrenchment of art. The final poe:m of Le; Flnm du mal: "u Voyage." "Death,
old admira.l, up anchor now."I' The final voyage of the flineur: death. Its destina·
tion: the new. Newness is a quality independent of the use value of the commod·
ity. It is the source of that illusion of which fashion is the tireless purveyor. The
fact that art 's last line of resistance should coincide with the commodity's most
advanced line of attack-this had to remain hidden from Baudelaire:.
"Spleen et ideaJ"-in the title of this first cycle of poems in UJ FleurJ du mal,
the oldest loanword in the French language was joined to the most recent
For Baudelaire, there is no contradiction between the two concepts. He recog·
nizes in spleen the latest transfiguration of the idea.! ; the ideal seems to him the
first of spleen. With this title, in which the supremely new is presented
to the reader as something "supremely old," Baudelaire has given the liveliest
foml to his concept of the modem. The linchpin of his entire theory of art is
"'modem beauty," and for him the proof of modernity seems to be this: it is
marked with the fatality of being one day antiquity, and it reveals this to whoever
witnesses its birth. Here we meet the of the unforeseen, which for
Baudelaire is an ul.alienable quality of the beautiful. The face of modernity itself
blasts us with its immemorial gaze. Such was the gaze of Medusa for the Greeks.
E. Hausslllntm, or tJl e Barricades
I
I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and aU thinV great;
Beaurifulnalure, on which great an rests-
How it enchant.! the ear and charms the: eye!
I IO\-"C: spring in blossom: women and rosa.
-Baron Hauumann, DmfiMion d'Il" liqn dnJ.nt1l
Haussmann's activity is incorporated intO Napoleonic imperialism, which favon
investment capital. In Paris, speculation is at its height. Haussmann's expropria·
tions give rise to speculation that borders on fraud. The rulings of the Coun of
Cassation, which are inspired by the bourgeois and Orleanist opposition, in·
crease the financial risks of Haussmannization. Haussmann tries to shore up his
dictatorship by placing Paris under an emergency regime. In 1864, in a speech
before the National Assembly, he vents his hatred of the rootless urban popula·
tion. TIlls population grows ever larger as a result of his projects. Rising I"C:nts
drive the proletariat into the suburbs. The quartim of Paris in this way lose their
distinctive physiognomy. The "'red belt" forms. Haussmarm gave himself the title
of "demolition artist." He believed he had a vocation for his \'lOrk, and empha­
sizes this in his memoirs. The central marketplace passes for Haussmann's most
successful construction-and this is an interesting symptom. It has been said of
the De de la Cite, the cradle of the city, that in the wake of Haussmann only one
church, one public building, and one barracks remained. Hugo and Merimee
suggest how much the transformations made by Haussmann appear to Parisians
as a monwnent of Napoleonic despotism. The inhabitants of the city no longer
feel at home there; they start to become conscious of the inhuman character of
the metropolis. Maxime Du Camp's monumental work Paris owes its existence
to this daw'uing awareness. The etchings of Meryon (around 1850) constitute the
death mask of old Paris.
The true goal of Haussmann's projects was to secure the city against civil war.
He wanted to make the erection of barricades in the streets of Paris impossible
for all time. With the same end in mind, Louis Philippe had already introduced
wooden paving. Nevertheless, barricades had played a considerable role in the
February Revolution. Engels studied the tacties of barricade fighting. Haussmann
seeks to forestall such combat in two ways. 'Widening the streets will make the
erection of barricades impossible, and new streets will COiUlect the barracks in
straight lines with the workers' districts. Contemporaries christened the opera­
tion "strategic embdlishment."
II
The flowery rnlm of decorations,
TIle chann of landscape, of architecture,
And aIIlhc: effect of scenery rest
$oldy on the law of perspective.
- Franz Bohle, Tlltaler'-Catu hismus (Munich), p. 74
Haussmann's ideal in city planning consisted of long straight streets opening
onto broad perspectives. This ideal corresponds to the tendency-common in
the nineteenth century-to ennoble technological necessities through spurious
artistic ends. The temples of the bourgeoisie's spiritual and secular power were to
find their apotheosis within the framework of these long streets. The perspec­
tives, prior to their inauguration, were screened with canvas draperies and un­
veiled like monuments; the view would then disclose a church, a train station, an
equestrian statue, or some other symbol of civilization. With the Haussmanniza­
cion of Paris, the phantasmagoria was rendered in stone. Though intended to en­
dure in quasi-perperuity, it also reveals its brittleness. The Avenue de l'Optra
- which, according to a malicious saying of the day, affords a perspective on the
lodge at the Louvre-shows how unrestrained the prefect's megaJo­
marna was.
III
Reveal to these depraved,
oRepublic, by foiling their plots,
\bur great Medusa face
Ring<d by "" lightning.
-Piem:: Dupont, Chanl us 'IIf1ritn
The barricade is resurrected during the Commune. It is stronger and better
than ever. It stretches across the great bouJevarcis, often reaching a
height of two stories, and shidds the trenches behind it. Just as the Communut
Man/u fO ends the age of professional conspirators, so the Commune puts an end
to the phantasmagoria that dominates the earliest aspirations of the proletariat. It
dispels the illusion that the task of the proletarian revolution is to the
work of '89 in close collaboration with the bourgeoisie. nus illusion had marked
the period 1831-1871, from the Lyons riots to the Commune. The bourgeoisie
never shared in this error. Its battle against the social rights of the proletariat
dates back to the great Revolution, and converges with the philanthropic move­
ment that gives it cover and that was in its heyday under Napoleon III. Under his
reign, this movement's monumental work appeared: Le Play's Oullrial etJropicu
[European \\brkers].
Side by side with the oven position of philanthropy, the bourgeoisie has aJways
maintained the covert position of class struggle.
n
As early as 1831, in the Journal
del tlibats, it acknowledged that "every manufacturer lives in his factory like jl
plantation owner among his slaves." If it was fatal for the workers' rebellions of
old that no theory of revolution had directed their course, it was this absence of
theory that, from another perspective, made possible their spontaneous energy
and the enthusiasm with which they set about establishing a new society. TIlls
enthusiasm, which reaches its peak in the Conunune, at times WOIl over to the
workers' cause the best clements of the bourgeoisie, but in the end lcd the
'workers to succumb to its worst d ements. Rimbaud and Courbet took sides with
the Commune. The burning of Paris is the worthy conclusion to Baron Hauss­
mann's ,",,'Ork of destruction.
Conclusion
Men of the nineteenth century, the hour of our apparition5 is
fixed foro.'CJ', and always brings w back the vcry same ones.
- Auguste 8lanqui, par kJ lJJlTtJ (Paris, 1872), pp. 74-75
During the Commune, Blanqui was hdd prisoner in the fon:ress of Taureau. It
was there that he wrote his L'Etmli/i par leJ a.stm (Etemity via the Stars). This
book completes the century' s constellation of phantasmagorias with one last,
cosmic phantasmagoria which implicitly comprehends the severest critique of all
the others. The ingenuous reflections of an autodidaa, which form the principal
portion of this work, open the way to merciless speculations that give the tie to
the author's revolutionary ,Han. The conception of the universe which Blanqui
develops in this book, taking his basic premises rrom the mechanistic natural
scicnces, proves to be a vision of hell. It is, moreover, the complement of that
society which Blanqui, near the end of his life, was forced to admit had defeated
him. The irony of this .scheme-an irony which doubtless escaped the author
himself-is that the terrible indictment he pronounces against society takes the
fmm of an unqualified submission to its results. Blanqui' s book presents the idea
of eternaJ return ten years before <arafhullra-ul a mrulller scarcely less moving
than that of Nietzsche, and with an extreme hallucinatory power.
TIlls power is anything but triumphant; it leaves, on the contrary, a reeling of
oppression. Blanqui here strives to trace an image of progress that (inllllemorial
antiquity parading as up-to-date novel ty) rums out to be the phantasmagoria of
history itself. Here is the essential passage:
The entire universe .is composed of astral systems. To create mem, nature has only a
hundred simplt bodits at its disposal. Despite t.he great advantab'C it derives from
these resources, and the innumerable combinations t.hat these resources afford its
fecundity, the result is necessarily afin;tt number, like thal of me elements them­
selves; and in order to 6lJ its expanse, nacure must repeat to infinity each of its
urigif!9l combinatioru or Iy/NJ. So each heavenly body, whatever it might be, exists in
infinite number in time and space, IlOI. only in {)nt of its aspects but as it .is at cadI
second of its existence, from birth to death .... TIle earth ill one of these heavenly
bodies. Every human being .is thus etemal at every second of his or her existence.
What I write at this moment in a cell of the Fort du Tallreall I have written and shall
write throughout all eternity-at a table, with a pen, clothed as I am now, in circum­
stances like these. And thus it is for everyone ... . The number of our doubles is
infinite in time and space. One cannOt in good conscience demand anything m OTe.
-nlese doubles exist in Oesh and bone-indeed. in trousers and jacket, in crinoline
and clugnon. They are by no means phantOJl1!l ; they are the present eternalized.
Here, nonethdcs.s, lies a great drawback: there is no progress .... \lVhat we call
"progress" is confined to each panicular world, and vanbl hcs with it. Always and
everywhere in the terresoial arena, the same drama, the same setting, on the same
narrow stage-a noisy humanity infantated with its own grandeur, believing itself to
be the universe and living in its prison as though in some immense realm, only to
founder at an early date along with its globe. which has bome with dccpcst ~
the burden. of human arrogance. The same monotony, the same immobility, on
other heavenly bodies. The universe repeats itself endlessly and paws the ground in
place. In infuuty, eternity perfonru-imperturbably-the same routines.'l3
1bis resignation without hope is the last word of the great revolutionary. The
century was incapable of responding to the new technological possibilities with a
new social order. That is why the last word was left to the errant negotiators
betv.-een old and neW who are at the heart of these phantasmagorias. The world
dominated by its phantasmagorias- this, to make use of Baudelaire's tenn, is
"modemity.n Bianqui's vision has the entire universe emering the modernity of
which Baudelaire's seven old men are the heralds. In the end, Blanqui views
novelty as an attribute of all that is under sentence of damnation. Likewise in Ciel
et mItT" [Heaven and Hell], a vaudeville piece that slightly predates the book: in
this piece the tonnents of hell figure as the latest novelty of all time, as "pains
eternal and always new." The people of the nineteenth century, whom Blanqui
addresses as if they were apparitions, are natives of this region.
Overview
t\. Arcades, Magasins dt NrJUutQutiJ,
Sales Clerlu 3 1
B Fashion 62
C Ancient Paris, Catacomb5,
Demolitions, Decline of
Paris 82
o Borroom, Eternal Return 101
E H,us,n""",,,uon, s.rr;"d,
Fighting 120
F lIon Construction 150
G Exhibitions, Advertising.
Grandville 171
H The CoUector 203
I TIlclntcrior, ThcTracc 212
Baudclaire 228
K Dream City and Dream House,
Dreams of the FUNre,
Anthropological Nihilism,
Jung 388
L Dream House, Museum, Spa 405
M TIle Flancur 416
N On the Theory of Knowlcdgt,
Theory of Progress 456
o Prostitution, Gambling 489
p 1hc Strtcts of Paris 516
q Panorama 527
R Mirron 537
S No...dty 543
T Modes of Lighting 562
U Saint-Simon, Railroads 571
V Conspiracies, Compagnonnagt! 603
'" Fourier 620
X Marx 651
Y Photography 671
Z The Don, The Automaton 693
a Social Movement 698
b Daumier 740
C
d Literary History, Hugo 744
e
I
g The Stock. Exchange, Economic
Hiuory 779
h
I Reproduction Technology,
Lithography 786
k The Commune 788
I The Seine, The Oldest Paris 196
JD Idleness 800
D
o
P Anthropological Materialism,
History of Sects 807
q
r Ecole Polyteclmique 818
•
•
.
u
'
. '
A
[Arcades, Magasins de Nouveaules, Sales Clerks1
The: magic columns ohhe5e palaces
Show [0 the amateur on aU sides,
In the: objecu their porticos display,
TItat industry i.'J die rival or the arts.
_MChanson nouveUe,ft Ciled in NouIXa ux rahlraux dt Paris, Oil ObKTVll ­
h"tm.J sur Its m«urs t l ujagtJ tkJ Parisims au rommrnumrol du XlX'
s;jcu (ParU, 1828), vol. 1, p. 27
For sale the bodies, the voices, the tremendous unquestionable
wealth, what will be sold.
-Rimbaud
1
"In speaking of the inner boulevards," says the JIluJtrated Guide to Paris, a com­
plete picture of the city on the Seine and its environs from the year 1852, "we
have made mention again and again of the arcades which open onto them. These
arcades, a recent invention of industrial luxury, arc: glass-roofed, marble-paneled
corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners have
j oined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of these corridors, which
get their light from above, arc: the most elegant shops, so that the arcade is a city,
a world in miniarure oFlaneur 0, in which customers will find everything they
need. During sudden rainshowers, the arcades are a place of refuge for the
unprepared, to whom they offer a secure, if restricted, promenade-one from
which the merchants also benefit." 0 "'bther 0
This passage is the locus classicus for the presentation of the arcades; for not
onl y do the divagations on the 8aneur and the weather develop out of it, but,
also, what there is to be said about the construction of the arcades, in an eco­
nomic and architectural vein, would have a place here. [AI , I)
Nallle, of mag asins (Ie 1I0UVetlllles; La Fille d · HOllncuc. La Vcsl ule, Le Page Incon­
stant , I.e Masque de Fer <The Iroll Mask >. Le Pdit Chapcron Houge <LittJe Uetl
Riding Hood >, Petit e Nanett e. La Chaumi Cr.:: all emande <The German Cottage),
Au Mumelouk, Le Coin {I e In Rue < On the thut mostly come
frOlll li uccessful vUUl lt:vill cs. 0 Mythology 0 A glover : Au Ci-Devlln! J cune Homme.
A confectioner: Aux Armcs de WertlH!c.
"Tim nUIll C or the jeweler sltl nds over the shop door in large i,I'«id letrer. - inl aid
with finc illlilUli on gems." Eduanl Kroloff, Scllil<lerllllgetl (uUI Puru (I-I amburg,
1839). vol. 2, p. 73. " In I.hc Galeri c W:ro-Dodat, a grocery store; above its
door, one reads IIl c inscript ion; ;Gll stronomie Cosmopoli te.' The individual char­
acters of the sign are formed . in comi c fashion, from SlIilH:S, pheasanu, harel.
antl ers, lobsters . fi sh. bird killneYI. a nd so forth." Kroloff, Scllil<lerungell (llUi
Ptlri•• vol. 2.IJ. 75. 0 Grandville 0 [A1.21
As business increased, the proprietor would purchase stock fOT a week and, to
make room for the goods being stored, would withdraw 10 the entresol. In this
way, the boutique became a magaJin. [AI ,31
It was the time in which Balzac could write: "The great poem of display chants its
stanzas of color from the C hurch of the Madeleine to the Pone Saint·Denis." Le
Diahle Ii Paris (Paris, 1846), vol. 2, p. 91 (Balzac, "Les Boulevards de Paris").
[AI ,' )
"'fhe da y Ihe won! . pecinlty was discovered by Her Majest y Intlustry, queen of
France li nt! of nei ghboring regiolls: on that day, it is said, Mercury, . pecial god of
merehallt s alld of several other social 'pecialtie" knocked three time8 with hi s
ciuluccul 011 the front of the Stock Exchange and swore by the beard of Proserpine
that the wortl was fllle with him." 0 Mythology 0 The word is used initially, how·
ever, only for luxury itcllis. La Grande Vi lle: NOUIJe(1Il Tableml de Paru (Pa ri s,
(844), vol. 2, p. 57 (Marc f'our ni er, " Les pariil iennes"). [AI,5]
" The narrow I t rt.-cts surrounding the Opera and the hazartlli to whi ch pedestri anl
were exposcd on emcrging frolll tlus theater, which is always besieged by ca rr iage8.
gave a group of speculat ors in 1821 the idea of u8i ng lome of the st.ructures sepa­
r ating the new theater from the boulevard. I This ent erprise, a source of riche8 for
its originators, Wil S li t the same time of great benefit to the public. I By way of a
small , lI arrow covered arcade built of wood , one had , in fact , di l"C(: t access, with
all t he securit y of the O,.era's vestibule, to these gallerie8, and from there to the
houlevard.... Ahove t he ent ablature of Dori c pilasters di viding the shops rise
two floors of apartments , anti above the apa rtment!J-rulining the lengt h of the
galleri es-reigns all enurmolls g1ass-panetl roof. " J . A. Dulaure, HiMoire phy­
. it/lle, civile el morllie de Pu ri. (Ielmi., 1821 jllJqll '(I nO$j our. (Puris, 1835). vol. 2,
pp.28- 29. [AI ,6)
Until 1870, the cAr ri llgc ruled Ihe stn.. 'CU. On t.he narrow sidewalks the
Wil l cxtrcmely crumpet!' 111111 ilO look place principally in Ill e arcade!!,
whi ch off,' fj· tI prot e.· tion frum bllli weather li nd from t he traffic. "Our lurgcr
stn...' ts HIlI I our wil ler a rc suit etlto the sweel fl ii ncrie that ftlr our fat her s
wa$ cxcept in the :trcatl es." 0 l-1ant:ur 0 Edmond Ueaurepai rc, Puri.
d 'Mer et d 'ulljolird'llIli : l ,.t. CI, roflilJll e de. rile. (Paris, 1900), p. 61. [Ala. I]
Names of arcades: Pau age des Panorillllils, Pa8liage Vero-Dodat , Passage dll Desi r
(leading in ea rli er daYI 10 II house of iU repute). Punge Colbert , Pauage Vivi ­
eline, Passage du Pont. Neuf, Pallage du Caire, Passage de la Reunion, Panage de
J'O,.er a, Passage de la Trinile, Passage dll Cheva l. Blanc, Passage Pressiere <Bes­
sieres?>, Pauage du Bois de Boulogue, Pil uage Grosse-tete. (The Passage dee
Panoramas was known at lirst as the Pan age Mirel.) [Ala,2]
The Passage Vero-Dada t (built between the Rue de Bouloy and the Rue Grenelle­
Sai nt-Honore) "owes its na me to two ri ch pork butchers, i\feuieurs Ver o and
Dodat, who in 1823 undertook iu construction together with that of the adjace.nt
buildings-an immense developmcnt . This led IIOmeone at the time to describe thi8
arcade a8 a ' lovely work of art franletl by two neighborhoods. ,,, J . A. Dula ure,
llil toire physique, civile et momie de Pari! depuil 1821 j wqu 'o no.jours (Paris,
1835), vol. 2, p. 34. [Ala,3]
The Passage Vera-Dod at had marble flooring. The actress Hacbellived there for a
while. [Ala,4)
No. 26, Galerie Colbert : "There, in the guise of a femal e glover, shone a beauty
that was approachable but that, in the matter of youth, attached importance
onl y to its own; she required her favoritel to supply her with the linery from
which she hOI.w to make a fortune . ... This young and beautiful woman under
g1aSi was called ' the Ab80lute'; but phil080phy would ha ve wasted its time pursu­
ing her. Her maid was the one who 80ld the gloves; 8he wanted it that way." 0 DaDs
oProstitutes 0 <Charles> Lefeuve, u. Ancienne. lJ1oisoru de Pam, vol. 4 (Paris,
1875), p. 70. [Ala,S)
Cour du Commer ce: " Here (using sheep) the Srst experiments were conducted
with the r;uilIotine; its inve.ntor li ved at that time on the Cour du Commerce and
the Rue de I'Ancienue-Comedie." Le.feuve, Les Ancienne. lJ1auoru de Pam, vol.
4, p. 148. [Ala,6)
' 'The Passage du Caire,t where the main business is lithogra phic printing, must
ha\'e decked itself out ill li ghtl when Napoleoll III abolished the stamp duty 011
Commercial ci r cula rs; thi s emuncipation made the arcade rich, and it showed its
appreciation with elt lH: nditlires for bcautjli catioll . Up to that point , when it
rained, II1nbrcllA8 had been neelled in its gall erics , whi ch ill several plAces lacked
glass covering. It Lefeuve, Les Ancien"es MlIi.ons de P«ru, vol. 2, p. 233. 0 Drea m
Houses 0 Weather 0 (Egyptian ornamentati un). [Al a. 71
Impasse Ma uOOrt . former ly d' Amboise. Around 1756, at Nos. 4-6, a IJoisoner
resided wilh her two assistants . AU three were found dead one morning-kill ed
through inhal ati on of l oxi c fUlll cs. [Ala,8)
Shops in the Passage Vbo-Dodat. Counesy of the Musee Camavalet, Paris. PhOto copyright
o des Mustes de la Ville de Paris. See Ala,4.
Years of reckless financial speculation under Louis XVlII. With the dramatic
signage of the magasiru de nouueautis, art enters the service of the businessman.
[Al a,9)
"After t.he Pu nge de Panoramas , which went back to the year 1800 and which
had an esta blished reput ation in societ y, there was. by way of exampl e. the gall ery
that was opened in 1826 by the butchen Vero and Dodat and that was pi ctured in
t.he 1832 (jthograph by Arnout. After 1800 we must go all the wa y to 1822 to meet
wi th a new arcade: it is between this dat e and 1834 that the majorit y of these
l ingular pal8agewaya are constnJCled. The most important of them are grouped in
Glass and iron girders, Passage VivicIUlC. Photographer unknown. Collection of
Joharul Fnw.ridl Gein; courtesy Prestel Verlag, Munich. See Ala,2.
TIle Passage des Panoramas. Watercolor by an unknown artist, ca. 1810. Counc.sy of
Agcnce Giraudon. Sec M ,I .
an area bounded by the Rue Croix-des· Petitl.Cbamps to the south, the Rue de la
Grange·Bateliere to the north, the Boulevard de Sebastopol 10 the eaSI, and the
Rue Ventadour 10 the west ." Mal"1:e1 Poete, Une vie de cite (Pam. 1925), pp. 373­
374. (Al a, IO]
Shops in the Pal8age des Panoramas: Restaurant Veron, reading room, music
shop, Marquis, wine merebanu, hosier, haberdashen. tailon. bootmakera, ho-­
siers. book.shops, caricaturist, Theiitre des Varietes. Compared with this, the Pas.
sage Vivi enne was the "solid" ar cade. There. one found no luxury shops. 0 Dream
Houses: arcade as nave with aide chalKls. 0 (M ,l ]
People associated the "genius of the J acobins with the genius of the industrials,"
but they also attributed to Louis Philippe the saying: "God be praised, and my
shops too." The arcades as temples of commodity capital. (A2,2]
The newest Paris al"1:ade, on the Champs·Elysoos , built by an American pearl
king; no longer in businel8. 0 Decline 0 (A2,3]
"Toward t h ~ end of the ancien regime, there were attempts to establish bazaar--like
shops and fixed· price stores in Paris. Some large magwiIU de nouveoutU--euch
as Le Diable Boitew;, Lea Dew; Magotl, Le Petit Matelot, Pygmalion-were
founded during the Restoration and during the r eign of Louis Philippe; but these
were husinenes of an inferior sort compared to today's establishments . The era of
the department stores dates, in fact, only from the Second Empire. They have
undergone a great deal of developmenl aince 1870. and they continue to develop. "
[(mile> Levasseur, Hutoire du commerce de la France. vol. 2 (Paris, 1912),
p. "9. [A2.4]
Arcades as origin of department stores? Which of the magasiru named above
Wett located in arcades? [M,S]
The regime ofspecialties furnishes also-this said in passing-the historical-mate­
rialist key to the 80urislUng (if not the inception) of genre painting in the rortics
of the previous cemury. With the growing interest of the bourgeoisie in matters
of an, this type of painting diversified; but in confonnity with the meager artistic
appreciation initially displayed by this class, it did so in terms of the content, in
terms of the objects represented. There appeared historical scenes, animal stud­
ies, scenes of childhood, scenes from the life of monks, the life of the family, the
life of the village- all as sharply defined genres. 0 Photography 0 (A2,6]
The in8uence of commercial affairs on Lautreamont and Rimbaud should be
looked into! (A2,7]
"Arlolher characteristi c deriving ducHy rrom the Di re<: lor y [ presumabl y until
ar ound 1830??] would be the lightncu or rabrics; on even the coMest d a y ~ , olle was
lieen only rarel y in furs or warm overcoats. At the rili k of losing their skin, women
ciotilctl themselvcs us though the harshness of wi nter no longer existed , as though
nuture II ad li mldcnl y htlCn tl'unsfonned into an et ernal paratlilie." <John) Grand­
Ca l·teret, us Efig(lIIces de ia loiieft e ( Paris) . p. xxxh'. [A2.8]
In other respeCts as well, the theater in those days provided the vocabulary for
articles of fashion. H ats ala Tarare, ala Theodore, it la Figaro, ala Grande­
Pretresse, ::\ la IphigCnie, ala Calprenade, ::\ la Victoire. The same niaiserie that
seeks in ballet the origin of the real betrays itself when-around 1830-a news'
paper takes the name u Sylphe. 0 Fashion 0 [A2,9]
Alexandre Dumas at a dinner purt y given by Princess Mathilde. The verse is
aimed at Napoleon lH.
In their impcrial splendor,
The uncle anrlnephew are Cllual:
The uncl e the capit als,
The nephew 8ci<l:e8 our capital.
Icy silence followed . Reportc(1 in Memoires rlu cornIe fiorace de Viel-Castel5l1r Ie
regne de Nnpo/eon Ill , vol. 2 (Paris, 1883), p . 185. [A2, IOj
" The cOlliisse b"uanllll ccd the ongoing life of the Stock Exchange. Here there was
never closing time; tlu:re was almost never night. When the Cafe Tortoni filially
closet! its tloors, the columll of stock jobbers would head across the adjacent
boulcvards a mi mea nder up and down there, collecti ng in front of thc Passage de
l' Opera." Julius Hodcnberg, PlJris bei Sonnenschein wltl LmnpenUcht (Leipzig,
1867), p. 97. [A2,ll j
IA2, !2]
Speculation in railroad stocks under Loui s PhiliplH!·
" Of the same extraction, furthermore [thai is, from the house of Hothschild], iJl
the amazingly e!olluent Mires, who necds only to speak in order to convince his
cr editors that losses are profits- but whose name , after the scandalous trial
against him, was noncthel us ohliterat ed from the Passage l\lires, which thereupon
bt-"1: amc the Passage Il cs Princes (with the famous Ilining rOOIllS of Petcrs restau­
rant )." Hot/cnbcrg, PtJris bei S01lnenschein und L«IIIpen/ichl (Leipzig, 1867),
[A2a,l j
p. 98.
Cry of the vendors of st ock-exchange li sts on the sh'eel: In thc cvenl of a in
pl'i ces, in the st ock market! " In Ihe cvenl uf a fall. -'Va l'ialions ill the stock
market!" Til e tcrm " fall " wus forhilldell hy the poli ce. [A2.a.2]
In its importance for the affairs of the couli.!.!" the Passage de l' Opera is compara­
ble to the Kranzlcrecke. Speculator's argot "in the period preceding the outbreak
of the Gcnna.n war [of 1866]: the 3-percent intercst was Q.llcd Afph07lJille; the
land credit, Ie gros Erne.!t; the Italian revenue, k paul.!1"e VICtor; the credit for
movabl es, k petit Julu." In Rodenberg (Leipzig, 1867>, p, 100. [A2a,3]
Range of a stockbroker 's fee: between 2,000,000 (si,> and 1,400,000 francs.
[A2a,4j
" The arcades, nea rly all of which date from the Restoration. "" Theodore Muret ,
/.. 'HiMOire par k theatre (Paris, 1865), vol. 2, p. 300. [A2a,S)
Some detail s concerning Avant, pendant , e l «pres <Before, During, and After>, by
Scribe and Rougemont. Premi er on June 28, 1828. The first part of the trilogy
represents the society of the ancien regime, the second part depicts the Reign of
Terror, and the third takes place in the society of the Restoration JH!riod. The
main character, the General, has in peacetime bl!i:ome an industrialist and indeed
a great manufacturer. "Her e manufacturing replaces, at the highest level , the field
worked by the soldier-laborer, The praises of industry, no less than the praises of
warriorJ and Mureates, wer e sung by Restoration vaudeville, The bourgeois class,
with its various levelli, was placed opposite the class of Dohles: the fortune ac­
quired by work was opposed to ancient heraldry, to the turrets of the old manor
house. This Third Estate, having become the dominant power, reeeived in turD its
flatt erers ." Theodore Muret, L 'Histoire par I.e theatre, vol. 2, p. 306. [A2a,6j
The Galeries de Bois, " which disappeared in 1828-1829 to make room for the
Galerie d' Orieans, were made up of a triple line of shops that could hard1y be
called luxurious, There were two parallel lanes covered by canvas and plaDks,
with a few gJass panes to let the daylight in. Here one walked quite liimply on the
packed earth , which downpours sometimes transformed into mud, Yet people
came from all over to crowd into thi s place, which was nothing short of mag­
nificent , and stroll between the rows of shops that would seem like mere booths
compared to those that have come after them. These shops were occupi ed chiefly
by two industries, each having its own appeal. There were, first , a great many
milliners, who worked on large stools facing outward, without even a window to
separate them; and their spirited expressions were, for many strollers, no small
part of the place's attraction. And then the Galeries de Bois were the ceuter of the
new book trade." Theodore Muret, L'Histoire par Ie theatre, vol. 2, pp. 225--226.
[A2a,7]
Julius Hodenberg on the snlall reading room in the Passage de l' Opera: '; What a
cheerful air this small , half-darkened room has in my memory, wilh its hi gh book­
shelves, its green t ables, its red-haired gar,<on (a great lover of Looks. who was
always reading noveb illsteltd of bringing them to others), its German newspapers,
whieh every morn.ing gladdened Ihe heart of the German abroad (all except til e
Cologne paper, which on average made an appearance only once in ten days). 8uI
wilen there is any ncws in Paris, it is here thai one can receive it. Softly whispcr ell
(fur the redhead keeps a sharp lookout to make sure that Ileither he nor other
readers will be disturhed by this), it from lips to ear, paslles almost imlM!r.
(·t'pti hly f rOIll pen to pape r. and finally from wriling del! k to nearby lell erhox. The
good (lame till IJllrflflll II fri ell dl y for 1111 . a lU! pupers alUl enveiolH!H for
The earl y mail is di gpatehed . Cologne DIUJ Augslmrg have their
news; and now- it is noolltime!- to the tavern." Rodcnbc r,;. Puris bei Sonnen­
5cll eill llrul Lampell/icill (Leipzi g, IS(7), pp. 6-7. [A2a,8j
" The I'uuage t!u Caire is highl y reminiscent , 011 a smaller sca le, of the Passage du
Saumon , which in t he IJasl existed on the Rue Montmartre, 0 11 the site of t he
present -day Rue Bllchullmont. " PIIIII L.eaullllld, " Vieux Pa ri s," Mercure de
Fnlllce (Oct ober 15. 19"27), p. 503. [A3, l !
" Shops on the old modd, devoted 10 tralles fOli lld nowll ere d se, surmount ed by a
sma U, old· fashiOIlt.. '11 meuanine with windows tha t ell ch bea r a number, 0 11 an
esculcilt..'OIl , COrreSI)omlillg 10 a particular shop. From ti me to ti me, a doorway
giving 01110 a corridor; at Ihe elld of the corridor. a small Icadill g to these
mezzanines. Near the knob of one of the,.e doors, this handwritten !!ign:
The worker next door
would 1M! obliged if.
ill dOijing the door.
YOIl refrainc(1 from 81alllming it.

Another sib'll is cit ed ill the same place ( U:aut aud, " Vieux Paris," Mercure de
f' rclll ce [1927] , pp. 502-503):
ANGELA
21111HOOf, to the right
IA3)]
Old name for d,' pa l·tment slol·es : dock! (I bOIl marcile-that i8, " discount ducks."
<Sigfrieth Git..-dioll , /lfluen i,l Fmnl.-reicJl <l...eipzig and Berlin, 1928), p. 31.
IA3,4]
Evolutioll of the departlllent store from the shop that was housed in arcades.
Principle of the department store: "The Boors foml a single space. They can be
taken in, so to speak, ' at a glance.'" Giedion, Bauen in Frankreich, p. 34. [A3,5!
Giedion shows (in Bauen in Frankreich, p. 35) how the axiom, the
crowd and keep il seduccd
n
(&ie/lu d l'il1l/ustrie, 143 (1925J, p. 6), leads to
corrupt architectural practices in the construction of the department store Au
Printemps (1881 - 1889). Function of commodity capital! [A3.6!
"' Even womeu, who were forbidden 10 ent er the Stock Exchange, all semhletl at the
door in onl cr 10 glea n sOllie indications uf ma rket allli to relay their orders
lu brokers through til e iron gr it ting. " 1.-£1 'fnlll s/orlllfllioll de PariJ 50118 Ie Scco/ul
(a lilhor8 l)oCle. CIOlizot , lIt' nri ot ) dlari8. 1910). on the occasion of t he
I'xllihiti oll uf tilt' lilll·a ry and the hi st orica l work,. of the ci t y of Pa ri s, p. 66.
IA3, ' ]
-\<\e have no specially"-lhis is what the well·known deaJer in secondhand
goods, Fremin, "the man with lhe head of gray," had written on the signboard
advertising his wares in the Pl ace des Abbesses. Here, in antique bric-a·brac,
reemerges the old physiognomy of trade !.hat, ill the first decades of the
century, began to be supplanted by the rule or the spicia/ili . This "superior
scrap--yaJ"d
n
was called Au Philosopht by its proprietor. What a demonstration and
demolition of stoicism! On his placard were the words : "Maidens, do not dally
under the Icaves!n And: "Purchase nothing by moonlighl." [A3,8!
E"idcntly people smoked in the a rcades at a tinle when it was not yet eust onl ary 10
slIIoke in the street . " I IIlust say a word here about life ill the arcades, favored
hll unl of stroller!! 1I lid smokers, theater of operations for every killd of snl al!
husineu. In each a rcade Ihere is a t least one cleaning establishment . In a saloll
t. hllt is as elega ntly furnished 8 S its intClided use permits, gentl emen sit upon high
a nd comfortably peruse a whil e someone busily hrushes the dirt
off their clot hing II l1d boots. II VOli Gall . PlIri$ IHid Jeine Salom, vol. 2
1845), PI). 22-23. [A3,9!
A first wintel· gardclI- a g1aue.i-in space with fl ower beds. espali er s. and foun­
lains , in pa rt the spot where , in the garden of t.he Palais-Royal
in 1864 (ami today 3 S well ?). the reservoi r was located . Laill out in 1788. [A3,l O)
" It is at the cnd of the Rest oration thai we see the first magtlsins de noutJellute.:
Les Vepres Sicili ellllc8, Le Solit aire. La Fille Mal Gardee, Le Solds t Laboureur.
1,,(:8 Deux Lc Petit SlIinl -Thomas, Le Gagne· Deni er <Penll Y Winllingn."
<LucicIU Duhech alii! <PierreHr Espezel. lIisloire de PariJ ( Pa ris. 1926), p. 360.
[A3.Il!
' · In 1820 .. . the Pau age Viull ct and the Pa§sagc tic,. Deux Pavilions were opened.
a rtlltle8 wen ' allIong the Il ovdti es of thcir tlay. The result of privat e initia ­
li\"I·. they w,' re co\·ercd gall er i,'s housing thut fa shi on Illude prO"perolls . The
/II" SI flltnous was Ihe Passage lie,. Panorumas. wllil ,lt fl ourished from 1823 to 183 1.
· Un Stuul ays. · ohst n 't..'1IMuu et. 0 111' ,,·,· nt en ma ul' ' to t.he Panora mas or d s(' to
tilt' I, uul"vards: It W!18 II lso prh'ate initiati ve Ihllt crell tl'ti , somllwhat hap·
hlIZ!t/"(ll y. til e housing llevdopnl1'nlS knowlJ as cile,. the shol· t or dead
huitt Ht expl' lI iit' ], y a or prop(· rt y o,,"n,'rs.·· Luciell Dubeeh a nd
I'i,·rrc II· lIi!/oire tic " flriJ ( Paris. 1926). pp. 355-356. [AJa.l !
In 1825 . opening of the Dauphine, Suucede, Choiseul" auti of t he Ci te
-
Herger t:. ;' 111 1827 ... the Passage8 Colbert , Crun ol , de I'lnduSlric.... 1828 saw
the oll,enillg ... of Ihe Pa881lgCIJ Brady and de8 GraviUi ers alltlthe l)egi nnillji\:8 of
the Galeri c d'Orieans a l the which repl aced t he gall eries
thai 11 10111 IlIIrncd dowli that year.... Dubech li nd ,fEsl>t:zd , lIi.uoire cle Paris.
pp. 357-358. [A3a,2)
" The allccilor of the depa rtment slores, La Vill e d e Puris, apl>t:u r cll lit 174 Rue
Montmartre in 1843:' Dubech all d d' Espezel, Ili.uoire de Pari$, p. 389. [A3a,3)
" Rainshowcn a lill oy me, 80 I g U\' e one the slip in a ll a rcade. There a re a great
man y of these g1uss-covercd walkwa ys, which often cross through the blocks of
buildings and make several hranehings, thll s affording welcome shortcllts. Uere
and there they are constructed wit h great elegance, alltl in bad weather or aft er
dark, wil en they are lit up br ight as day, they offer promenades-and \'ery popu­
lar they are-past rows of gli tt er ing sho"s." Eduard De\-rient , Briefe au.s Pa ris
(Berlin, I8<W), p. 34. [A3a,4]
Rue-gtllerie.-"T he 5lreel-8(1ilery ... is the m08t important feature of a Phalan­
steryand ... calillot be cOll ceh'ed of in ci vili 7.alioll .... Street-gall eries ... are
heatetl in winter and vent ilated in summer.... The street-gallery. or continuow
peri.style, extends along Ihe second II tOry.... Those who have seen the galler y of
the Louvre lII ay take it as a 1II(Hlel ror the street-gallery in Harmony." E. Silber­
ling, DicliQlllltlire tie sociologie plwlmulerielllUl War is. 1911), p. 386; citing
<Charlen Fourier, Theorie de I'lIlIile Iltli verselle ( 1822), p. 462, and Le NOlLveau
Monde illtlll.slriel el socieltli re ( 1829), "p. 69, 125, 272. In adilition: Culerie.­
"AU porti olls or the central cdHi ce C811 be Iraverlled by meall t or a ""ide gallery
whi ch rllns along the second fl oor .... Thus, e\'erythulg is linketl by 8 seriet of
pastageways which ar e shellercd, elegant , and comrortahl e in wint er thanks to the
help or heaten allli \'entilators," E, Silberling, DicliofUlaire. pp, 197- 198; citing
Fourier, 'fh eorie lIIixte, 011 5/JeClllllt ive, et sYlltl, e5e rOlllilliere de r/l uociution.
p. 14.-' [A3a,5]
The Passage du Caire adjoining the rormer Cour de8 Miracles. Built in I i99 on the
site or the old ga rden of the COllvellt or the Daught en orCod. [A3a,6]
Trade and traffic are the two components of the street. Now, in the arcades the
second of these has effectively di ed out: the traffic there is rudimentary. The
arcade is a street of lascivious commerce only; it is whoUy adapted to arousing
desires, Because in this s[teet the juices slow to a standstill, the conunodity
proliferates along the margins and elUers into falUas tic combinations. like the
tissue in tumors.-The Haneur sabotages the traffic. Moreover, he is no buyer. He
is merchandise, [A3a.7]
For the first time in history, with the establishment of department stores, consum­
ers begin to consider themselves a mass, (Earlier it was only scarcity which
taught them that.) Hence, the circus·like and theatrical clement of conunerce is
quite extraordinariJy heightened, [M,l]
With the appearance of mass·produced anides, the concept of specialty arises. Its
relation to the concept of originali ty remains to be explored, 1A4,2)
" 1 gr ant that husmeu at the Pubis- Royal has had il8 da y; but I believe that this
should be attributed uot to the absence or streetwalkers but to the erection of new
arcades, allilto the enlargement and rerurbishing or sever al others, I will mention
the Passages de l' Oper a, du Gra nd-Cerf, dll Saulllon, de Vero-D(Hlat, Delorme, de
Choiseul , and des Panoramas." E F. A. Beraud, Le5 f"ille5 de Pari.s et Eo.
police qui le5 regit (Paris and I..cipzig, 1839), VI) I. I , P, 205. [A4,3]
" I do not know lfbusines8 at the Palais-Royal has reall y sufrered rrom the absence
of femme5 tie debauche; but what is certain is that public d«ency there has im­
proved enormously .. , , It seems to me, furthermore, that respet:table women now
willingly do their shopping ill the shops of the galleri es , , . ; this has to be an
advantage for the merchallts. For when the Palais-n oyal was invaded by a swarm
or practi call y nude prostitut etl, the gue or the crowd was tumed towa rd them and
the peo"le who enjoyed this llpet: tacle were never the oneil who patronized the iocal
buti nelllle8. Some were already ruined by their ilisorderly life, while other l, yield­
ing to the allure orlibertinism, had no thought then or purchasing any goods, even
necessities. I believe I can affirm , .. that, during those times of inordinate toler­
ance, sever al shops at the Palnis-Royal were closed , and in other s buyer s were
rare. Thus, busines8 ilid nol at all prosper there, and it would be more accurat e to
say that the stagnation or hll sine811 at that time was owing rather to the free cir cu­
lation or Ihe ftlles publique.s than to their absence, whi ch today has brought back
int o the galleri es and the garden of this palace lIumerous strollen, who are far
nl ore ravor able to busineu than pr08titut es and libertinell." F. F. A. 8eraud , Le5
Fi/les publiques tie Pari5 (Paris and I..cipzig, 1839), vol. 1, pp. 207- 209, [A4,4]
The care. are fill ed
With gourmeu, with 8moke .... ;
The thealen are Ilacked
With
The a ru dcB ar e 8warminl!
With I!lIwken. with enthusiast8,
Ami pickpockel-f wri ggle
Uchind the flineur•.
Ennery II lId I..cmoine, Paris hI nuit , cited in H, Gourllon de Genoui.ll ac. 1£5 Re­
f ruin.s de la rue lie 1830 a1870 (Paris. 1879). PI), 46-47.-'1'0 be cOllipa red with
Baudel aire's "Crcpuscul e ti ll -foir." lA4a. l]
" And those who cannot pay for ... a shelt er ? They deep wherever they filul a
pl ace, in arcades, in corners where Ihe police and the oWllers lellve them
IIl1di SHlrlled. ·· F'ri edri eh Engel", Die Ltlge der (lrlJeitcmien KltlSse in Eng /mid ,
2nd cd. ( Leipzig. 1848), p. 46 (" I)i e grossen Stii{lt e").
5
[A4a.2]
" III all t he shops, like II uniform, the oak count el' is adOl' ned with count erfeit
coins, in ever y kind of mel al and in ever y formal , nail ed in pl ace like
Lirds of prey 011 a door- unimpeachabl e evidence of the proprietor' s scrupulous
hOll esty." Nadar, QlIllllcl j 'et(li$ photogmphe (Paris ( 1900) , p. 294 C"1830 et enl'i­
rons"). [A4a,3]
Fotlrier 0 11 the street -galleri es: "To speud a winter's da y in a Phalanst cry, to visit
all parts of it without ex posure to lilt: e1t:mellls, to go to the theat er and the opera
in li ght clot hes and colored shoes wit hout worrying about the mud and the cold,
would he a charm so novel tli al it al one would snffi ce to make our cities and castles
St..'C1II detestable, If t he Pllalanst ery wer e put to civilized uses , the lII er e conven­
ience of its shelt ered, heated, and ventil ated passageways wouJd make il enor­
mously ,·aluabl e. b Its propel'l y value . .. would be double that of another huilding
its size." E. Poisson, Fourier [Anthology] ( Paris, 1932), p, 144. [A4a,4)
" The stn:e t -gll llerieli ar e u mode of int ernal cOlUmtlu.i cation whi ch would alone be
sufflcicnt to inspire di sdain for t he palaces and great cities of civili zation.... The
ki ng of France is one of thc leading mona rchs of civilization; he does nol even have
a porch in hi s Tui lcri es palace. The king, the quccn, Ihe royal famil y, when they
get into or out of their carriages, are forced 10 get as wet as a ny lH! tt y hourgt:ois
who summons a cab befol' c Ius shop. Doubtless the king will have on hand, in Ihe
event of rain, a good lIlany foolmcn and courtier s t o hold an uillb rella for him . .. ;
hut he will still he lacking a porch 0 1' a roof that wouM shelt er his party.... Let us
descrihe the sll't..oel-gall eri es which a l'e one of the mosl char ming and precious
features of a Palace j)f Ha rmony .... The Phalanx has 110 OUl side streets or open
roadwllYs exposell to the element s. All portions of the central edifi ce can be tra­
l'ersed by mea ns of a wide galler y whi ch r uns along the second floor of the whole
building. At each extremit y of thi s spacious corritl or there a re elevat ed passages,
sUI'Port e{1 by COIUlIIIIS, and also attractive ulUl er ground passages whi ch connect
all the pal·ts tlf Ihe Phalanx and the adj oining builtlings. Thus, ever ything is linked
hy 11 seri es of passageways which a re sheltered, elegllllt , ami comfort abl e in wi nter
tlmnks t o t he hel l' of heat ers alltl \·entilators.... The st reet -gall er y, or contil/uous
peristyle, extends aloll g the second stOI')'. It could not be pi liced Oll til e ground
fl oor, since the lower par i of the huilding will be trllversetl by ca lTi llge en­
trances.... The street-gall er ies of a Phalanx wimlliiong just one side of ti m cell­
tl'al edifi ce ami stl'etch to the elltl of ell dl of its will gs. All of thesc wiuj9> eOlltllin a
tlouble row of 1'001118, Thus , 011" row of n XJIIIS looks Oll t upon the fields and gur­
tl"ns. a nd the ot her looks outupOIl the street -galler y. '1'1... stl'L't: t-gallt:r y. then. will
be 11'1'1;" Slot' i" s high witl l will{l ows on oll e side .... The kit chens 11 1111 some of tl .. :
puhlic han... will be located on the ground Roor. There will also be trap doors in the
Roors of the dining rooms on the second story. Thus, the tables may be set in the
kitchell s below and simply raised through the trap doors when it is time to eat.
These Irap doon will be particularl y nseful during festivities, such as the visils of
traveling caravans and legi ons, when there will he too many people to eat in the
ordinar y dining rooms. Then double rows of tables will be set in the street-galler­
ies, alld the food will be passed up from the kitchen. I The princi pal public halls
should not be si tuated on the ground floor. There are two r eaSOns for this. The first
is that the patriarchs and children, who have difficulty climbing st airs, should be
lodged in the lower parts of the building. The second is Ihat the children should be
kept in isolati on from the nonindustrial activities of Ihe adults." Poisson, Fourier
[AnthologyJ(Paris, 1932), Pl" 139-144. 7 (AS)
Yes, JHlrbleu ! You know the power of Tibet .
Impl acabl e enemy of proud innocence,
Hardly does it appear than it carries away
The bookkeeper's wife and the burgher's daught er,
The 8tern prude and the frigid coquette:
It signals the victory of lovers;
For fashion tolerate8 no usistance,
And not to have it puts one to shame.
Its fabric. hraving the current bon mot,
Softens in its folds Ihe arrows of ridicul e;
Seeing it . you think of a magicaltaliJJman:
It braces the spirits and subjugates the heart;
For it 10 appear is already a triumph, ill coming a cont[Uest;
It U contlueror, as If()vereign, as mUleI';
And trealing iu quiver as a hurden quite useleu,
Love has fashioned its handeau of cashmere.
Edouard [d' Anglemont] , Le Cuchemire, one-act comedy in verse, performed for
the first time in Paris at the Theatre Royal de l' Odeon, on December 16, 1826
(Paris, 1827) , p. 30. [A5a, l )
Delvau on Chodruc-Duclos: " Under the reign of Louis Philippe , who owed him
nothing, he ... did what he had done under the reign of Charles X, who in fact
owed him something.... His bones took more time t o 1'0 1 Ihan his name took to
erase itself from the memory of men." AUred Delvau, Les Lions dlt jour (Paris,
1867), pp. 2&-29. [A5a.2)
" I
t was IIOt until after the expedition to when l)CUple in France gave
t hought to expanding the use of precious cashmere fabric, that a womun, Greek by
hirth, introduced it to Paris. M. Ternaux ... conceived t he admirable project of
rai sing Hindustani goats in France. Since then, ... there have been plcnty of
wor kers to train and trades to est ablish, in order for us t o compete successfull y
against products renowned t hrough so llIany centuries! Our manufaetllf't:rS arc
begi nning to triumph ... over prej udice against French shawl s.... We
have managed to muke wOlll en rorgct ror a moment the ridiculous rabri c-designs or
the Hindus by huppil y reproduci ng the vividness and brillia nt harmony or the
fl O""ers roulIIl in our own ga rdens. There is a book in wbich alltheae interestillg
are di scussed both knowledgea bl y and elegantl y. L'lIi$,oire de, ,chail$,
by l\1 . Rey. though writt en ror the shawl manufacturers or Paris, is guaranteetl t o
ca ptivate women .... This book, t ogether with its author's magnificent manufac­
tured goods, will undoubtedly help to dissipate French people's infatuation with
the work or roreigners. M. Rey, manuracturer or shawls made or wool , casbmere,
et c . ... has br ought Ollt several cashmeres ranging in price (rom 170 to 500 (rancs.
We owe t o hinl , umong other improvements , ... tbe graceful im.itation o( native­
.5
1
grown fl owers in 1>lace or the bizarre palms of the Orient . Our praise would not be
t:{lual to the benefits he has best owed, ... nor could it render the high honor that
f
thi s litt eruteur-manwactll rer deserves for his long r esearch and his talents. We
must be conlent merely to name him." Chenoue and H. D., Notice lur l'eXp6!ilion
de, proolliu eie l'induMrie el deJ urU qui a lieu aDouai en 1827 (Douai , 1827),
..
pp.24-25. [M ,l ]
Mter 1850: " It is durill g these years that the department stores are crealed : Au
Bon l\1urciui, Lc Louvre, La HeUe J ardiniere. Total sales ror Au Bon Marche in
1852 were only 450,000 rrancs; hy 1869 they had risen to 21 miUion." Gisela
.' reulIIl . LeI Ph otog rapllie <III point de lIue !ociologique (manuscript, pp. 85-86);
citing Lavisse. l1i! toire de France. [A6,2]
"The printers ... were able to appropriate, at the end o(tbe eighteenth century, a
vast area: ... the Passage du Cai re and its environs.... But with the extension o(
the bOllndaries o( l:>aris, Ilrinters ... were dispersed 10 aU parts o( the city ....
Alas! A gl UI or printers! Today workers corrupted by the spirit of specul ation
ought to remembe r thai . .. between the Rue Saint-Denill a nd the Cour des a.fir­
there stiU exi sts a long. smoke-filled gallery where their true household gods
lie (orgott en." Edoua rd Foucaud, Pa ru inventellr (Paris, 1844). p. 154. [A6,3]
Descri pti oll o( the Passage !lu Saumon, " which , by way of three stolle steps,
ol)Cnml onto the Rue l\1onlorgueil. It was a lI a rrow corridor decorated with pil as­
ters supporting a ridged gla ss roof, whi ch was litt ered with garbage thrown (rom
nci ghhOl'iug houses. At the ent rance. the signboard-a till salmon indicating the
mlli ll (·hllructel'i stic or till' place: lhe air was filled with the II lIIell o( fish ... and also
the smell or ga rli c. It was here, ultove all , that those a rriving in Iluris (rom Ihe
south of fo'runce would urrungt: to meet ... , Through the doors or the shop8, one
"pi e(1 alcoves where sometimes II piece or mahogany rurniture, the cla8sic
furniture or the peri OlI. would ma nage to catch a ray or li gll! . Further 0 11 , a Slll all
IJa r hazy wil h t he smoke of tobllcco pipes; a shop selling prO(luCIS rrolll the colonies
111111 emittin!, II Cllri Oll il frllgra llce of exotic spi ces, lind rruit s; a ballroom
01H!1I ror (I uuci ng on Sundays a nd workduy eveniugB; flllllUy the reudillg room or
A branch or La BelleJardiniere in Marseilles. From u Month illUJIri, March 28, 1863. See A6,2.
Sieur Ceccherini. who offered to patrons hi s newspapers and his books." J . Lucas­
Dubreton, L'AJJaire Alibaud. Oil Loui!-Philippe troque (1836; rpt. Paris, 1927).
PI' · 114-115. [A6a,l ]
On the occasion o( disturbances associated with the hurial o( General Lamanlue
011 June 5, 1832, the Passage du Sallllloll was the scene o( a battle waged on
barricades, in which 200 worker s confront ed the troops. [A6a.2]
" Martin : Business, you see, sir, ... is the rul er or til e world!- DeJgenau: 1 am or
your opi nion, Monsieur Martin, hul the rul er alone is nol enough; there mll st be
suhj ects. And that is where painting, sculpture, mll sic come in ... .- M(lrti'l : A
liltle or thai necessary. surel y • ... olul ... I myselr have encouraged the a rts.
Why, in my last establi shment , the Ca fe de France, I hu{1 lII a ny paintings on
all egori cal subj ects .... Whal is 1II 0re, I engaged for the evenings ..
Finall y, ir Imay in vil e YOlilo accompany lII e ... ,you will see under my peristyle
Iwo ver y la rge. scan til y attired st atues. each wit.h a light fixture 011 ils head.- DeJ­
gerlUU: A li ght fi xture?-Murtill: That is my idea ur sculpture: it mll st serve some
Jlurpose .... All those st atues wit h all arm or a leg ill til e air- what a re tbey good
for, sinee they've had no pipe installed to carry gael ... What are they good for?"
Theodore Barriere. Les Parisiens, produced at the Theatre du Vaudeville on De­
cember 28, 1854 (Paris. 1855). p. 26. [The play is eel in 1839.} [A6a3]
There WaR a Pa8sage du Desir. <See Ala.2.)
[A6a,4]
Chodruc.Duclos--a aupernumerary at the Palais· Royal. He was a royalist. an
opponent of the Vendee, and bad grounds for complaining of ingratitude under
Charl ea X. He proteAted by appearing publicly in rags and letting hia beard grow.
{Ma,5]
Apropoa of an engraving that picturea a ahopfront in the Pallage Vero-Dodat:
"One cannot praise this arrangement too highly-the purity of its lines; the pictu....
esque and brilliant produced by the pelight globes . which are. placed be­
tween the capitall of the two double column. bordering each shop; and finally the
shop partitions. which are eet off by reflecting plate glall... Cabinet de.tl Enampe.t
(in the Bibliotheque Nationale, PariS).
(A7,I]
At No. 32 Pauage Brady there WaR a dry·c1earungeetablishment , Maison Donnier.
It waa aamouS) for its "giant workrooms" and its " numerous pertlonnel. " A con­
temporary engraving showe the two-nory building crowned by small mansard.;
female workertl in great numbert are visible through the windows; from tbe ceil­
ings hangs the linen.
[A7,2]
Engraving from the Empi re: TM Dance of fM Shawl among the Three
Cabinet des Estampes.
[A7,3]
Sketch and floor plan of the ar cade at 36 Rue "auteville, in black, blue, and pink,
from the year 1856. on. stamped paper. A hotel attached to the arcade i. like-­
wise represented. In boldface: " Property for lease." Cabinet des Estampes.
[A','[
The firSt department stores appear to be modeled on oriental bazaars. From
engravings one sees that, at least around 1880, it was the fashion to cover with
tapestries the balustrades of the staircases leading to the atrium. For example, in
the stOrt called City of Saint-Denis. Cabinet des Estampes.
(A7,S]
"The Pau age de I'Opera. with ita two galleries. the Galerie de I'Horloge and the
Caleri e du Barometre.... The opening of the Opera on the Rue Le Peletier. in
1821. brought this arcade into vogue, and in 1825 the ducheue de Berry came in
The Passage de ))enon to inaugurate a •Europama' in the ealerie du Barometre.... The grisetle.tl
1822-1823. Courtesy of the Music Camavalet, Pam. Photo copyright
t) Photothcquc des MUKes de la Ville de Pam. See A7,6. of the Restoration danced in the Idalia Hall . built in the basement. Later. a cafe
called the Divan de POpera was established in the arcade.... Also to be found in
the Pauage de POpera waa the anna manufacturer Caron. the music puiJJjsher
Lithograph by Opitz., 1814. Counesy oftbe
Strttt scene in front of me Passage des Panoramas·
Bibliotbeque Nacionale de France. See A7,7.
U t and finaUy the perfume shop of the Opera....
M.arguen e. the palltry chef Ro e • . . hevetu-which is to say. manu­
. th e wae Lemonnler. artute en c .. p ul
In ad<Ii bon.... er . . d f __.1 items made of hair. a
I ' f reliquanee an un."
dk
faclurer of hall ere nes,
d' An l te, La Vie et le monde du bouleva , {A7,6]
"The Pauage del Panoramas, 80 named in memory of the two l)anOramas that
etood on either li tl e of itll entranceway and lhal di sappea red in 1831. " Pa ul
d' Anl te, La Vie et Ie mOllde tlu boulevard (Parie), p. 14. [A7,7]
The beautiIuJ apotheosis of t he " marvel of the Indian Ihawl ," in the secti on on
Indiall art in Mi chc.l et's Bible de l'hwtltwite (Pa ri s, 1864). [A7a,l ]
And Jehuda ben tb lery,
In her view, would hal'e been honored
Quite enough by being kept in
Any pretty box of cardboard
With lOme very Bwanky Chineee
ArllbeBIIU6 to decorale ii ,
Like a bonbon box from Marquis
In the Pa8U!;e Panorama.
Heinrich Heine, Hebrauche Melodien, " J ehuda bell Halevy," part 4, in Ro­
man::ero, book 3 (cited in a letter from Wiesengrund). ' [A7a,2)
Signboa rds. Mter the rehue st yle came a vogue for literary and military aUwionl.
" If an erUI)tion of the hillt op of Montmartre happened to awallow up Paril , al
Vesuvius swaUowed up Pompeii, olle would be able to reconstruct from our
boardl, after fifteen hundrml years, the history of our military triumph, and of
our literature. " Victor Fournel, Ce qu 'on 110il datU Ie$ rue, de Po";" (Pam, 1858),
p. 286 ("Enseignes et affiches"). [A7a,3]
Chaptal, in his speech on protecting brand names in industry: "Let us not
asswne that the oonswner will be adept, when making a purchase, at distinguish­
ing the degrees of quality of a material. No, gentlemen, the consumer cannot
appreciate these degrees ; he judges only according to his senses. Do the eye or
the touch suffice to enable one to pronounce on the fastness of colors, or to
detenn.ine with precision the degree of fineness of a material, the nature and
quality of its manufacture?" Chaptal, Rapport au nom
d'une commission .spicitJlt! charget! dt! l 't!xamt!71 du projd dt! loj rt!latifaux a/tiration.s t!l
JUp/JOSitioIU dt! nonu .sur It!J produjt.s fabn"qui.s [Chambre des Pairs de France, ses­
sion of July 17, 1824], p. 5.-The importance of good professional standing is
magnified in proportion as consumer know-how becomes more specialized.
[A7a,4]
" What shall I suy 1I0W of that couliue which, lI ot con lent with ha rboring a two­
hour ill egal sessioll 01 the St ock Excha nge. spawned once again nOllong ago, in the
open air, two demonstrations IJCr day on Ihe Boulevard des ltali en8, acr Ol8 from
the POsluge de l' Operu. where five or 8ix hUllflrcl1 market 8lJCcul ators, forming a
compact mass, foll o",'oo dumsil y in Ihe wake of lome forl Y unli censed brokers, aU
the whi le 8peaking in low voi ces like eOll spirator8, ...·hile Iwli ce office ... prodded
them from behiml to g.: t them to move on, as one prods fat , t ired sheeplH:i ng letlto
the slaughterhoulie.·' 1'11. J . Ducos (de Condrill ), COmmellt on .fe rnill e (i III BOli ne
(Paris , 1858), p. 19. [A7a.5]
II was at 27 1 Rue Saint-Martin, in the l'assage du Cheval l{ouge, thul Lucenaire
commined his murders. [A7a,6]
[A7a,7]
From a prospectus: '1'0 the inhabitants of the Rues Beauregard, Bourbon-Vill e­
neuve, du Caire, and de la Cour des Miracles .. , . A plan for two covered arcades
running from the Place du Caire to the Rue Beauregard, cnding directly in front of
the Rue Sainte-BarlH:, and linking the Rue Bourbon-Villeneuve with the Rue
lIautevi ll e, , .. CentJemen. for some time now we ha\'e been concerned about the
future of thi s neighborhood, and it I' ainij us to see that properti es so close to the
boulevard carry a value so far helow what they ought to have . This stat e of affairs
would change if lilies of communication were opened. Sinee it is iml)t)ssibl c t o
constroclnew st reet s in this area, due to the great unevenness of the ground, and
since the only workable plan is til e one we have the honor of lIubmitting to you
here, we bope, CentJemen, that in your capaci ty as ownerll ... you will in turn
honor us with YOllr cooperation and affiliation .... Every partner will be retluired
to pay an installment of 5 frllncs on each 2S0-franc share in the future company.
As soon as a capital sum of 3,000 francs is reali;,;ed, this provisional subscripti on
will bec:ome final--uid sum being judged at present sumcienl. .. , I'aris, this 20th
of October. 1847." Prillted prospectus inviting suhscriptions. (A8,I)
" In the Passage ChoiseuJ , 1'11 , Comte, ' Physician to the King,' presents his cele­
brated troupe of child actors ext ruorclinaire& in the int erval between two magic
shows ill which he himself performs." J.-L. Croze, " Quelques spect acl es de Paris
pendant I'ete de 1835" (Le Temp.f, Augu8l22, 1935). (A8,2)
"'At thi s turning point in history, the llarisian shopkeelH!r makes two di scoveries
that re\'olutionize the ....orld of lu nOlweaute: the di splay of goods and til e male
employee. The di splay, whi ch leads him to deck out his sllOp from Iloor to ceiling
and to sacrifice three hundred yards of material to garlalld hi s fa\,atl e (jke a flag­
shil); and the male empl oyee. ""ho replaces the seduction of man hy WOlllall­
something conceivetl by the shopkeepers of the a ncien the sellucti oll
of womall by lIIall , whi ch is psychologi call y more ustut e, Together with t hese cOllies
the fuc ell pri ce, the kno ....n allli nOllnegotiubl e cost. " H, Clouzol a nd n.-II . Valefl ll i ,
Le Paris de "'/AJ Comedic Iwmuine"; Hllizll c et .fCS jOllrniU(!lIrS (Ila ri s, 1926) ,
PI', 31- 32 ("MagasiIl 8 lie nouvl:uut cs" ). [A8,3)
" ' Il ell a flllI8 usin de nOIlVelJllleS rent.:tlthe spli ce formerly oct' upicd by !! etzel. the
ctlitor of Comedill IUUlmillll , Buh:ac wrote: IIwlHw Comet' )' !mil yicitlcd to
the comedy of ca.d IlJlCres. It (Clou:r,ot and ValclIsi, Le Paris de " ' AJ Comedie hit­
mCiine, ,0 p. 37.) {A8,4]
Passage dll Commerce-Saillt -Arl(lre: a reading rOUIII. [A8a.l ]
"Once the go\'er'lIIl1cnt had "Ileome the !egili mute owner of 1111 the hOll 8CS
or Paris, it handed them over to the archit ectll with the ortler ... t o establish
.f freet -gllilerie.f . .. , Tbe archit ects accompli.shed the mission enlrusted to them as
\\'ell as could be I!llpected . On the sccond story of e\'ery house, they took all the
rooms that facetl the streel and demolished the int ervellillg partitions; they thell
openetl up large bays in the dividing walls, tll ereby obtaining street-gall eries that
Ilad the height and width of an ordi nary room a nd that occupi ed the entire Icngth
of a block of buildings. III the newer (1IUlrtiers. where nei ghboring houses have
their fl oors at approxi ma tely the stille height , the gall eries could be joined to­
gether on a fairl y evcn level. ... But on older streets .. , t he floors had to be
carefull y rai sed or 10wcl'ed, and often the builders had to resign themselves to
giving the floor a r ather steel' slant . or brea king it up with stairs. When aU the
blocks of houses were thus traver sed by galleries occupying ... their second story.
it remained only to connect these isolated secti ons to oll e another in order to
constitut e a network ... embracing the whole cit y. This was easil y done by erect­
ing covered walkways across every st reet , . , . Walkways of the same sort , but
much longer, were likewi se put up over the various boulevards, over the squares,
and over the bridgeg that cross the Seine, so tha t in the cnd ... a person could
u roll through the enti re cit y without e\'er being exposed to the element s .... All
SOOIl as the Parisians had got a taste of the lIew gall eries, they lost all desire to set
root in the streets of old- which, they often sai d, were fit only for dogs." TOllY
Moilill , Pam en l'an 2000 (paris , 1869), I'P. 9-11. [A8a,2]
"The second floor cont ains the street-gall eries. , , . Along the lellgth of the great
a\'enucs, . , . they form st reet-salons .... The other, much less spacious gaUeriea
are decorated more mooesll y, They have been resened for retail businesses that
here di splay their merchandise in sll ch a way that passer sby circulate no longer in
front of the shops but in their int erior," Ton)' Moilin. "(lris en l'an 2000 (Paris.
1869), pp. 15-16 ("Maisons-modeles" ), (A8a,3]
Sales clerks: " There are al lclI8t 20,000 ill Paris .... A great numbe r of sales clerks
ha \'e bcell etlucated in the classics, .. ; oll e even finds allloll g them painters /.I nd
lI rehit ects ullaffiliut ed with ully workshop, who a great Il eal of their knowl ell ge
.. , of these two branches of arl in eunstructing di spl ays, in Ilcterlllining the design
of new it ems, in tl ire<: ting til e creati on of fashions." Pierre Larouue, Grund Dic­
tiOn/wire uni ver.fe! du XIX' siecie, \ ' 0 1. 3 (Paris. 1867). p. 150 (a rticl e on "Cali ­
l'Ot" ) , [A9, 1)
'-Why tli,l the author of Btlllies de mocurs
u
of Mallncrs) choose 10 pre­
Sellt , in a work of fiction , lifelike porlraits of the notabl es or hi ;; day? Doubtleu for
j
hi s own amo,ement fir" of aU .... This expl ains the descriptio"S_ For the direct
ci t atiOIl S, a nother reason must be found-and we see none better than hi s unmi s­
takabl e aim of providing Imblicily. Balzac is one of the fir81 10 have divined the
power of the II clverti&ement and, above aU, the disgui8ed advertisement . In lho8e
days •... the newspapers were unaware of such power .... At the very most,
around midnight . 8 S workers were finishing up the layout . advertising writers
mi ght slip in at the bottom of a column 80m e lines on Pite de Regnault or Brazilian
Blend. The newspaper advertisement 8S such was unknown. More unknown still
wal a proceu 88 ingenioul 81 citation in a novel. ... The tradesmen Darned by
Balzac ... are cl early hi , own.... No one understood better than the author of
Ce,ar Birolleau the unlimited potential of publi city.... To confirm this, one need
onl y look at the epithets ... he attaches to his manufacturers and their product s.
Shamelessly he dubs them: the renowned Vict orine; Plaisir, an iUwtriow hair­
dresser ; St aub, the mOlt celebrated tailor of his age; Gay, a/amow haberdasher
... on the Rue de la Michodie.re (even giving the address!); ... ' the cuisi ne of the
Rocher de Cancale, ... the premier restaurant in Paris ... , which is to 8ay. in the
"
entire world .... H. Clouzot and R.-H . Valenti, Le Paris de "w Comedie hu­
maine": et JeJ!oltrnuJeur, (Paris, 1926), pp. 7-9 and 177-179. IA9,2)
The Passage vero-Dodat connects the Rue Cr oix-d es-Petil8-Champs with the Rue
Jean-lacquel- Rouneau. In the latt er, ar ound 1840, Cabet held his meetings in his
r ooms . We get an idea of the t one of these gatherings from Martin Nadaud's
Memoires de Leonard, ancien gar-;on mo-;on: " He was still holding in hi s hand the
towel and razor he had jUl t been using. He seemed filled with joy at seeing us
l'eslJectabl y attired, with a seriOUI air: ' Ah, Messieu rs,' he said (he did not say
'Citizens'), ' uyour adversaries could only see you now! You would dilarm their
critici sms. Your dress and your bearing are those of well-bred men...' Cited in
Charl es Benois t , " L' Homme de 1848," part 2, Revue deJ deux mondeJ (February
I , 1914), PI)' 64I--642.-h was characteristic of Cabet to believe that workers
need not busy themselves with writing. IA9,3)
Stred-salons: "The largest and most favorably aituated among these ( street­
gall erie8] were tastefully decorated and l umptuously furni shed. The waUl and
ceilings wer e covered with .. . rare marble, gildi ng, ... mirror s, and paintinga.
The windows were adorned with spl endid hangings and with curtain8 embroidered
in marvelous pattem8. Chairs, fauteuils, 1I0fas ... offered comfort able seating to
tired strollers. Finally, there were artis ticall y designed obj ects, antique cabi ­
nets, .. . glan cases full of curiosities, ... porcelain vases containing fresh flow­
ers, a(IUariumll full of live fish, a nd aviaries inhabited by r are birds. These
completed the decor ati on of the st reet -galleries, which lit up the evening with ...
gi lt candelabra8 and crySlaJ lamps. The government had wanted the st reets be­
longing 10 I.he people of Paris to surpasll in magnificence the drawing rooml of the
most powerful sovereigns.... Firs t thing in the morning, the s treet-ga llcri es are
lurned over to attendants who air them out, sweep them carefully, bru8h, dust ,
a nd polis h the furniture , and everywhere impose the mosl scrupulous c1eanlinen.
Then, depending on the seallon, the windowil are either opened or closed , 8.nd
either a fire i8 1il or the blinds urc lowered.... BelwL'C1i nine and len o'clock Ihi8
cleaning is nil cOlUplele(l . all d unlilthen (ew li nd far belwL"e Il .l.oegili to
nppenr ill grea ler numbers . I<: utl'llll ce to thl.\ stri ctl y fol'i)iddell 10 IIny­
oll e who is dirty or 10 carri ers of hellvy 10u{ls; s moking ami s pitting lire likewise
p r ohihited here." Tony Moil in. H./riJ en I'an 2000 ( PliriS, 1869). pp. 26-29 ("As­
pect des rues-ga lcricH"). [A9a, I)
Tlltl magcuill s de nOlwealites owe their existence 10 the frct,.'<lom of trade esta b­
li slu!tl by Napoleon I . "Of those establ is hmenl s, famous in 1817. which gave them­
sdn:s n ll ,nes like La Fille Mal Ca rdt':e. Le Iliahl e Boitem.:: , Le l\1us«ue d e Fer, or
Les Deux l\I agots, 110t Olle remains. Many of those whi ch rcplaced them under
Louis Phili ppe also foundered later La Belle Fermi cre II l1d La Cha u8&ee
d·Anlin. Or else they were 80ld a t lillIe profit - li ke I..e Coill de Rue and Le Pauvre
Oiahle." G. d ' Avenel , "Le Me.: aniSlau: de la vie modernc." part I : " Les Grands
]\ l ag1l 8i ll s," ReVil e dell deux "Wildes (luly 15, 1894), p. 334. [A9a,2)
Til e office of Phili pon '& weekl y La Caricatllre was in the Passage Vero-Dodat.
[A9a,3]
Passage liu Caire. Erected aft er ' apoleon's return fr om Egypt . Cont ai n8 l ome
e\'ocat ions of Egypt in Ihe heads over the elltrall ce, among
ot her things. "The II r ca(les a re sad , gloomy, lind always intersecting in a mallncr
disagreeabl e to the eye.. . They seem ... destined to house lithographers' stu­
(lios and bi nders' 8hops, as the adjoi ning s treet iii destined for the manufacture of
st raw halS; pedestri ans generall y avoid them." Eli e Berthet, " Rue el Passage dll
Caire," PlIriJ chez loi ( Paris p. 362. (A 10,1]
" In 1798 and 1799, the Egypti an campaign lent frigiltful iml)Ort ance to the fashi on
for sll awll . Some generals in the expeditiona r y army, taking advantage of the
proxi mit y of Indi a, sent hOllle s hawls ... o( cashmerc to their wives and lady
fri ends.... From thell on, t he disealie t hat might be call ed calihmere fever took on
.signifi ca nt prol)Ortiolls. It began to spread during the Cons ulat e, grew greater
Ulu ler the Empi r e. beca me giga llti c (III r ing tiw HestOl'lltion, reached colossai lli ze
under the Jul y Monurchy, alul hali finally assumed Sphillx-like dimensions since
Ihe February Revoluti on of 18<18.'- Po riJ eire; soi ( I'uris). p. 139 (A. Durand,
"Cllii les-Cacli cmircs el Conlains an intcr\'iew with M. Mar­
ti ll , 39 Rul.\ Ri chcli cu, proprich.r of a stOI'C cull ed Thc 111(lia Il 5; repurts thul 51111wl 8
whi ch cu r lier were betwt'ell 1,500 II lul 2, 000 (rulU' s ('a n 11 0 "" he hought (or
800 10 1.000 fr unts. [AIO.2)
From UrIlZiCI', GlI hricl , a nd l)umcl'sa ll , l ..ell ct It'll rues. vHudevill e ill Oll e
acl , p rcsclltc{1 (or t ile firs t timc. ill Pa r is. li t the Thcii tl'c li es Varictcs 011 MIII'(:h 7,
1827 ( Paris, I827). - Begi nlling of a sung by t he s harehulder Dulingol :
For the llrelld efl. I form
Con tinual refrains of thHnk.:
In the r.UlIllfl Delorme
Lut ece arbi t rates the difference8: "' The affair is settl ed . Genies of light , hea rken
I've Jlut .. hundred Iho" ,"nll f rllllc•. ( 1'". 5-6)
10 my voice. ' (At this 1lI0mcnt the wllOle ga ller y is l! IItJdenly illuminated by gas­
" I heRr they WDIII 10 roof aU the Sireel! of Puns wilh glass .
Thai will make for
ligll!. )" (I" 31). A ballet of streeu ami arcades conclmles the vaudeville. [Al Oa, I]
lovely hothouses; we wiU li ve in them like meloll s" (p. 19). [AlO.3}
" I 110 not at all hcsitate to wrilll-as monst rous li S this llIay seem to serious writers
on a rl - that it was the salc$ clerk who laul1chetl lithography.... Condemned to
From Girard. De! Tombeaux, ou De "' nfluence de! irutitutioru funebres .mT Ie,
imita tions of Ruphad, to Briseises by RegnlluJt . it wouM IHl rli aps have di ed; the
moeurs (Parill. 1801): "The new Punge du Caire, lIear the Rue Saint.Denis, ...
sales d erk saved il ." Hcnri Bouchot , La LitllOgrffphie (Paris ( 1895», pp. 50--51.
is paved in pa rt wilh (uner a r y slones, on whi ch the Gothi c inscriptions and the
[All ,l ]
emblenlS have nol yet been effaced. " The author ",;,heli 10 draw alt elltion here to
the decline of piety. Cited in Edouard Four nier, Chroniques et lkgendes des rues
In t he Vivienne
de Pari.1 (Paris. 18(4). p. 154.
lA10,4]
She told me: "" I'm from Vienna:·
Alltl , he added:
wi th my uncle,
Brazier, Gabr iel, and Dumenan, Le, Prusoges e' Ie, rues. OIL La Gue rre decwree,
..
The hrother of
va udeville in one acl , per(ornu!tl (or the fi rst time. in Paris, at the Theatre del
I take care of hie furuncle­
Vari ele8 on March 7, 1827 (Paris, 1827).-The party of a rcade8-adver saries is It h88 ils charms. thi. fale:·
composed of M. Duperron, umbrell a merchant; !'tIme. Duhelder, wife of a carriage I promised to meet the Ilamselagain
provider ; M. Mouffetard . hailer ; M. Bla ncmanteau . mer chant a nd manufacturer
In the Panage Honne- Nouvell e:
o( clogs; and Mme. Dubac. rentier--each one coming (rom a different part of
!Jul in the l'anage Brady
t own. M. Dulingot . who has bought st ock in the arcade8. has championed their
I wait ed in vain. '\
cause. His lawyer is M. Pour; that of his opponents, M. Contre. In the second to
And there )·ou have it : arcade amouN! last (fourt eenth) 8cene, M. Contre appears at the head of a column o( st reets,
which are decked with banner s proclaiming their names. Among them are the Rue Na rcisse Lebeau. cited by l..eon-Paul Fargue. "Cafes de Paris," part 2 (in Vu, 9, aux Ours. Rue Ber gere. Rue du Croin ant , Rue du Puits-Qui-Parle, Rue du no. 416 (Ma rch 4, 1936)].
[AII ,2] Grand-Hurleur. Likewise in the next scene--a procession of arcades with their
banner s: Passage du Saumon, Passage de I'Ancre. Passage du Gr and-Cen , Pas­
sage du Pont-New. Passage de l' OI.era. Pauage du Panorama <lie>. In the follow­
"'There seems no reaSOll , in particular, at the first and IlIOSt lit eral glance, why the
ill g scene, the last (sixt eenth), Lutece
l
! emerges from the bowels of the earth, at
story should be called aft er the Old Curiosit y Shop . Only two of the characters
have a nything to do with such a shop, and they leave it for ever in the fi rst few
fi rst in the guise of an old woman. I.n her presence, M. Contre t akes up the
pages.... But when we feel the situation wilh llIore fidelit y we reali ze that this title
of the streets against the a rcades. " One hundred forty-four arcade8 open thell"
is something in the lIature of a key to t he whole Dickens romance. His tales always
mouths wide t o devour our customers, to siphon off the eve.... rising Aow of our
start ed from some spl endid h.int in the streets. Ami shops, per haps the most poeti­
crowds. both active and idle. And you want us stret! ts of Paris to ignore this clear
infringement of our ancient ri ghts! No. we demand ... the interdi cti on of our one
cal of all things. often set his fa ncy galloping. Ever)' shop, ill facl , was 10 him the
door of romance. Among all the huge seri al schemes ... it is a matt er or wonder
hUlldred fort y-four opponents and. in addition, fifteen million. fi ve hundred thou­
sand francs in damages and int erest" (p . 29). The argument by!'tt. Pour in favor of
that he never started an endless periodi ca l call ed til e The Street . and divided it
into shops. lie could have written an exquisite r omance call ed The Buker 's Shop; the arcades takes lhe form of ver se. An extract :
another call ed TIl e CI, emis t $ Shop; another call ed Til e Oil 51101), to keel' company
We whom they would bani! h--we are nlore than u&tful .
wit h The Old Curiosi t), Shop." G. K. Chcsterl on. DickenJ. tra ns. Laurent and
Have we not, by vi rtue of our cheerful upect. Martin-Dupont (paris, 1927), I'p. 82--83.'3
[AII ,3]
Encouraged all of Pam in t he fashion
Of hnaan, thollf! maru 110 famou! in the Eut?
·'One may womlcl· to what extent Four ier himself heli evClI ill his fantasies. In hi s
And what are t he1lf! wall. the crowd admi ree?
manuscr ipli he complai ns of criti c" wllO ta ke lit erall y what is mea nt as
Theile ornamcnU. the&t column. above all ?
fi gurat ive, and who insislllloreover 0 11 sl)t:aki ng of his '"Iudicil whims.' There may
YOII'd think YOll were in Athene; and thi' temple
have lHlt!n at Icast II modi cum of deliheral e charl nta llism al work in 11 11 this-all
I. erecled to commerce by good lu te. (I'p. 29--(0)
attempt to launcll hi. system by mea nS of the tactic. of commercial advertising,
wnu:h had begun to develop." F. Armand and R. Maubl anc. Fourier (Paris, 1937),
vol. l . p. 158. 0 Exhibitions 0
(Alla,l)
Proudhou's confe88ion near the end of his life (in his book De ill j utllice"--com­
pare with Fourier 's vieion of the phalallstery): " It has been nece88ary for me to
beconle civili1.oo. But need I approve? The little bit of civili zing I've rt!(!eived
disgusts me.... I hate houses of more than one stor y, houses in which, by contrast
wit h the social hi erarchy, the meek are raised on while til e are &e uled
ncar the ground. " Cited in Armand Cuvillier, /ltar:e el ProuclllOn: Ala lumiere (/u
/ltarxUme. vol. 2, part I (Pari8, 1937), p. 211 .
[Al l a,2]
B1an«ui: "' I wore,' he says, ' the first tricolored cockade of 1830, made by Ma­
dame Bodin in the Passage du COmmer ce. ", Gustave Geffroy, L'Etiferme (Parie,
1897), p. 2,10.
[Alla,3]
Baudelaire can 8till write of "a book as dauling as an Indian handkerchi ef or
shawl." Baudelaire, L 'Art r omantiqllC (Parie), p. 192 ("Pierre Dupont") .
[Alla,4]
The Crauu t Collection poueues a beautiful reproducti on of the Passage des
Panor amas from 1808. Al80 found ther e: a pro8pe<: lue for a bootbl acki ng shop, in
which it ie a que8tion mainl y of Puss in Boots.
[Al i a,S)
Baudelair e to his mothcr on December 25, 1861, concerning all altempt to pawn a
shawl: " I wae told that , with the approach of New Year'e Day, there was a glut of
cashmeres in the atoree, and that they were tryi ng to d.ist:ourage the public from
br inging any mor e in. " Charles Baudelai re, i..eUreJ ti , a mere (Paris, 1932),

"Our epoch will be the link between the age of isolated forces rich in oripnal
creativene88 and that of the uniform but leveling for ce whi ch gives monotony to its
products, casting them in ma88Ci, and foll owing out one unifyi ng idea-the ulti­
mate expression of social communi ti es." U. de Balzac, L '/Uwtre Gaudu$art . cd.
Calmann-Levy (Pa ri s, 1837), p.
[Al la,7)
Sales at Au Bon Marc.he, in the years 1852 to 1863, rose from 450,000 to
7 million francs. The rise in profits could have been considerably less. "High
turnover and small profits" was at that time a new principle, one that accorded
with the two dominant forces in operation: the mul titude of purchasers and the
mass of goods. In 1852, Boucicaut allied himself with Vidau, the proprietor of Au
Bon Marche, the magaJill tk lI(JuueauliJ. "The originality consisted in selling
guaranteed merchandise at discount prices. Items, first of all, were marked with
Au Bon Marche department store in Paris. \r\bodcut, ca. 1880. See A12,1.
fixed prices, another bold innovacion which did away with bargaining and with
' process sales'-that is to say, with gauging the price of an article to the physiog­
nomy of the buyer; then the ' return' was instituted, allowing the customer .to
cancel his purchase at will ; and, finally, employees were paid almost entirely by
-
conunission on sales. These were the constitutive elements of the new organiza­
tion." George "Le Mecanisme de la vie modeme: Les Grands Maga­
sins," Revue de; tkux mow;, 124 (Paris, 1894), pp. 335-336. [AI2,t ]
The gain in time realittd for the retail business by the abolition of bargaining
may have played a role initially in the calrulations of department Stores. [A 12,2)
A chapter, "Shawls, Cashmeres," in BOTne', lndwtrie-Au"teUung im Louvre
<Ex.hihition of Indust ry in the Louvre), Ludwig Borne, Ge.ommelte Schriften
(Hamburg a nd Frankfurt am Main, 1862), vol. 3, p. 260. [A12,3!
The physiognomy of the arcade emerges with Baudelaire in II lentence al the
begi nning of "Le J oueur genereux": " It seemed to me odd that I could bave passed
this enchanting haunt so often without suspecting that here was the entrance."
<Baudelaire. Oeuvres, ed. Y.-G. Le Dantec (Paris. 1931).) vol. I, p. 456.
11
(A12,4]
Specifics of the department store: the OlSlOmers perceive themselves as a mass ;
they are confronted with an assortment of goods; they take in an the floors at a
glance; they pay fixed prices; they can make exchanges. (A12,5]
" In those parts of the city where the theaters and public walks ... are located,
where t herefore the majority of foreigner s live and wander, there ie hardly a
building without a shop. It takes onl y a minute, only a step, for the forces of
a tt raction to gather ; a minute later, a . tep further on, and the passerby i.e . tanding
bef ore a different shop .... One's attention i.e spirited away .. though by violence.
alld one has no choi ce but to stand there and remain looking up until it returns.
The name of the shopkeeper, the name of his merchandise. inecribed a dozen times
011 placards that hang on the doors and above the windows. beckon from all , ides;
the ext erior of the archway resembles the eJ.:ercise book of a schoolboy who writes
the few words of a paradigm over and over. FabriCi are not laid out in samples but
are hung before door and window in completely unroUed bolts. Often they are
attached high up on the third story and reach down in sundry folds all the way to
the pa\'emenl. The shoemaker has painted different-colored shoes, ranged in rows
like battalions, across the entire of his building. The sign for the locksmiths
is a six-foot-high gold-plated key; the giant gates of heaven could require no larger.
On the hosiers' shops are painted white stockings four yards high, and they will
startle you in the da rk when they loom like ghosts .... But foot and eye are
arrested in a 1I0bier and more channing fashion by the paintings displayed before
many storefr onts.... These paintings are, not infrequentl y, true worka of art.
allli if they were to ha ng in the Louvre, they would inspire in connoi88eur. at least
pleasure if not a,lmiration.... The shop of a wigmaker i. adorned with It pi cture
Ihili. 10 be sure, is poorly exec: uted but di stinguished by an amusing concepti on.
Crown Prince Absalom hangs by hi s hair from a tree and i. pierced by the lance of
all enemy. Underneath runs the "erse: ' Her e you ace Absalom in. his hopes quit e
debunked, I Had he worn a peruke. he'd not be defuDct.' Another ... pi cture.
representing a village maiden a. she kneel s to receive a garland of rosell-token of
her virtue--from the hands of a chevali er, ornamcnt8 the door of II milliner'.
shop." Ludwig Burne. Schiidenlflsen «u.s Pr.lri.s ( 1822 "lid 1823), ch. 6 ("Die
Laden" (Shops»), in Ge.s(l mmelte Schriften (Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main,
1862), vol. 3. pp. 46-49. IAI2a)
On Baudelaire's "religious intoxication of great cities":" the department stores
arc: temples consecrated to this intoxication. (AI3]
B
[Fashion}
Fashion: Madam Death! Madam Death!
-Giacomo Leopardi, "Dialogue: bctwccn Fashion and Death
Nothing dies; all is transfonncd.
-Honor.! de Balz.ac., /tnsitJ, JujelJ,.JTar;r-ts (Paris. 1910). p. 46
And boredom IS the grating before which the courtesan teases
death.
[Bl .l ]
DEnnui D
Similarity of the arcades to the indoor arenas in which one learned to ride a
bicycle. In these halls the figure of the woman assumed its most seductive
as cyclist. 'TItat is how she appears on contemporary posters. Cheret the pamttt
of this feminine pulchritude. The costume of the cyclist, as an early and uncon­
sciow prefiguration of sportswear, corresponds to the dream that, a
little before or a lilde later, are at work in the factory or the automobile. Just as
the first factory buildings cling to the uaditional form of the residential dwelling,
and just as the first automobile chassis imitate carriages. so in the clothing of the
cyclist the sporting expression still wresdes with the inherited pattern of degance.
and the fruit of this souggle is the grim sadistic touch which made this ideal
image of elegance so incomparably provocative to the male world in those days.
oDream Houses 0 [Bl,2}
" In these year . [around 1880). not only does the RenainaDee fashion begin to do
mischief, but on the other side a new intel"e8t in sport.-above all , in equelitrian
sport8-arises among women, and together thelie two tendencieli exert an influenee
on fashion from quit e differeDt directions. The attempt to these senti­
ments dividing the female sou) yieldli result s that . in the years 1882-1885, an:
original if not always beautiful. To improve matters, dreu deliigners simp)jfy and
take in the waill ali much as pon ihie, while allowing the likirt an amp)jtude all the
more rococo." 70 Jahre deutJche Mode (1925), pp. 84-87. [BI ,3)
Here fashion has opened the bwiness of dialectical exchan between
and ware between ure and the corpse. The clerk, death, tall and
loutish, measures the century by the yard, a& mannequin himself to save
costs, and manages single-handedly the liquidation that in French is called rivolu­
lion. For fashion was never an . other than the of the mot! cadaver,
rovocation of death throu the woman and bitter colloquy with deca w
pertd between shrill bursts of mechanical laughter. t IS as on. And that is
w y S e changes so quickly; she titillates death and is already something differ­
em, something new, as he casts about to crush her. For a hundred years she holds
her own against him. Now, 6nalJy, she is on the point of quitting the fidd. But he
erectS on the banks of a new Lethe, which rolls its asphalt Stream through
arcades, the annature of the whores as a battle memorial. 0 Revolution 0 Love 0
[Bl ._]
SquareR, 0 squa re in Pari., infinite 8howplace,
where the modi8le Madame Lamort
windt a nd bind. lhe mile.. way. of the world,
IhOle endJeq ribbon" to ever- new
creationa of how, (rill , fl ower, cockade. a nd (ruit-
R. M. Rilke. Duineser Elegien (Leipzig, 1923). p. 23. 2
[B1.5]
" Nothing has a place of itli own, save fashion appoints that place." L'Esprit d 'Al­
phon&e Karr; <Pen&ees extraites de ses oeuvres completes) (Paris, 1877), p. 129.
" If a woman of taste, while undre'8i ng at night , ahould find hef'llclf con. tituted in
realit y ali 8he ha. pretended to be during the day, I like to think she'd be discov­
ered next morning drowned in her own teaf'll." A1phon.e Kan, cited in F. Th.
Vischer, Mode urld Zynismw (Stuttgart, 1879), pp. 106-107. [Bl ,6)
With Karr, there appears a rationalist theory of fashion that is closely related to
rationalist theory of the origin of religions. The motive for instituting long
skirts, for example, he conceives to be the interest certain women would have
had in concealing an un.J.oveI.y <fOOb. Or he denounces, as the origin of certain
types of hats and certain hairstyles, the wish to compensate for thin hair. (Bl ,7)
Who still knows, nowadays, where it was that in the last decade of the previow
century women would offer to men their most seductive aspect, the most inti­
mate promise of their figure? 10 the asphalted indoor arenas where people
learned to ride bicycles. The woman as cyclist competes with the cabaret singer
for the place of honor on posters, and gives to fashion its most daring line.
[B1.S]
For. the most interesting thing about fashion is its extraordinary
anlJopalJons. It is wdl known that art will often- for example, in picrures-pre­
cede the perceptible rnlity by years. It was possible to see streets or rooms that
in all sorts of fiery colors long before technology, by means of illuminated
Signs and other arrangements, actually set them under such a light. Moreover,
the sensitivity of the individual artist to what is coming certainly far exceeds that
of the grande dame. Yet fashion is in much steadier, much more precise contact
with the coming thing, thanks to the incomparable nose which the feminine
collective has for what lies waiting in the future. Each season brings, in its newest
creations, various secret signals of things to come. Whoever understands how to
read these semaphores would know in advance not only about new cum:nts in
the arts but also about new legal codes, wars, and revolutions.
s
-Here, surely,
lies the greatest chann of fashion, but also the difficulty of making the charming
fruitful. [B1a,1)
"Whether you translate Russian fairy tales, Swedish family sagas, or English
picaresque novels-you will always come back in the end, when it is a question of
setting the tone for the masses, to France, not because it is always the truth but
because it will always be the fashion." <Karl> Gutzkow, Briefi aus Paris, vol. 2
<Leipzig, 1 8 4 2 ~ , pp. 227-228. Each time, what sets the tone is without doubt the
newest, but only where it emerges in the medium of the oldest, the longest past,
the most ingrained. nus spectacle, the unique sdf-construction of the newest in
the medium of what has been, makes for the true dialectical theater of fashion.
Only as such, as the grandiose representation of this dialectic, can one appreciate
the singular books of Grandville, which created a sensation toward the middle of
the cenrury. When Grandville presents a new fan as the "fan of Iris" and his
drawing suggests a rainbow, or when the Milky Way appears as an avenue
illuminated at night by gaslamps, or when "the moon (a self-portrait)" reposes on
fashionable velvet cushions instead of on clouds' -at such moments we first
come to see that it is precise.1y in this century, the most parched and imagination­
starved, that the collective dream energy of a society has taken refuge with
redoubled vehemence in the mute impenetrable nebula of fashion, where the
undentanding cannot follow. Fashion is the predecessor-no, the eternal dep­
uty-ofSUITealism. [Bla,2]
A pair of lasciviou8 engravings by Charles Vernier entitled A Weddins on Wheels­
showing the departure and the ret urn. The bicycle offer ed UD8U8pe<:ted ponibili­
tie8 for the depiction of the raised skirt. [Bla,3)
A definitive perspective on fashion follows solely from the consideration that to
each generation the one inunediately preceding it seems the most radical anti­
aphrodisiac imaginable. In this judgment it is not so far wrong as might be
supposed. Every fashion is to some extent a bitter satire on love; all sexual
perversities are suggested in every fashion by the most ruthless means ; every
fashion is filled with secret resistances to love. It is worthwhile reflecting on the
following observation by Grand-Carteret, superficial though it is: "It is in scenes
from the amorous life that one may in fact perceive the full ridiculousness of
certain fashions. Aren't men and women grotesque in these gesrures and atti­
rudes- in the rufted forelock (already extravagant in itself), in the top hat and the
nipped-waisted frockcoat, in the shawl, in the grande; pamela;, in the dainty fabric
boots?" Thus, the confrontation with the fashions of previow: generations is a
I.e Pont des planetes (Interplanetary Bridge). Engraving by Grandville, 1844. See Bla,2.
matter of far greater importance than we ordinarily suppose. And one of the
most significant aspects of historical cosruming is that-above all, in the thea­
ter-it undertakes such a confrontation. Beyond the theater, the question of
cosrume reaches deep into the life of art and poetry, where fashion is at once
preserved and overcome. [Bla,4]
A kindred problem arose with the advent of new velocities, which gave life an
altered rhythm. 1bis lauer, too, was first ttied out, as it were, in a spirit of play.
The loop-the-loop carne on the scene, and Parisians seized on this entertainment
with a frenzy. A chronicler notes around 1810 that a lady squandered 75 francs in
one evening at the Pare de Montsouris, where at that time you could ride those
looping cars. The new tempo of life is often announced in the most unforeseen
ways. For example, in posters. "These images of a day or an hour, bleached by
the elements, charcoa1ed by urchins, scorched by the sun-although others are
sometimes collected even before they have dried-symbolize to a higher degree
even than the newspapers the sudden, shock-filled, mulrifonn life that carries us
away." Maurice Talmeyr, La GIlt du sang (Paris, 1901), p. 269.ln the early days
of the poster, there was as yet no law to regulate the posting of bills or to provide
protection for posters and indeed from posters; so one could wake up somc
mOrning to find one' s window placarded. From time inunemorial this enigmatic
need for sensation has found satisfaction in fashion. But in its grolUld it will be
reached at last only by theological inquiry, for such inquiry bespeaks a dcep
affective attitude toward historica1 process on the part of the human being. It is
tempting to connect this need for sensation to one of the seven deadly sins, and it
is not surprising that a chronicler adds apocalyptic prophecies to this connection
and foretdls a time when people will have been blinded by the effects of too
much dectric light and maddened by the tempo of news reporting. FromJacques
[B2, I)
Fabien, Paris J()1Igt: (Paris, 1863).
"On October 4, 1856, the Gymnasium Theater preM:nted a play entitled Lu Toi­
lette, Tapagcwes <The Flashy Dresser s>. It waa the heyday of the crinoline, and
puffed-out women were in fashion. The actres. playing the leading role, bavin&
gra. ped the satirical intentions of the author, wore a drell whOM: skirt, exagger·
ated by design, bad a fullnell that wa. comical and almolt rimculoUi. The day
after opening night, . he wa. a.ked by more than twenty fine lamea to lend her
drell8 as a model, and eight day. later the crinoline had doubled in . ize." Maxime
[B2,2)
Du Camp, PoriA, vol. 6 <Paris, p. 192.
" Fashion is the recherche-the always vain, often ridiculous, sometimea danger­
ous que.t- for a superior ideal beauty." Du Camp, PoriA, vol. 6, p. 294. [B2,3)
The epigraph from Balzac is well suited to unfolding the temporality of hell : to
shol'ling how this time does not recognize death, and how fashion mocks death;
how the acccleration of traffic and the tempo of news reporting (which conditions
the quick succession of newspaper editions) aim at eliminating all discontinuities
and sudden ends; and how death as caesura belongs together with all the straight
Du h., d'u 'tllli.j.,u.
lines of divine temporality.-\\Ue there fashions m antiquity? Or did the
Fashionable courtesans wearing . lin Lith
[B2,4) caption reads' "LaW f the .J_cr:no cs. by Honoli Daumier, 1855. 'The
"authority of the frame'" preclude them?
. es 0 ucm·monde, but havmg no demi·skiru." See 82,2.
"She was everybody' s contemporary." <MarccJ.) Jouhandeau, Prudence Haute·
dtaume (Paris, 1927), p. 129. To be con/emporaiM de tout k monJe-that is the Aknit 'carf-a brightly striped mufBer- worn also, in muted colors, by men.
keenest and most secret satisfaction that fashion can offer a woman. [B2,5)
[B2a,4)
Th. Vischer on the men'. fashion of wide sleeves that faUbelow the wrist: " What
An emblem of the power of fashion over the city of Paris: "I have purchased a
have here are no longer arms but the rudiments of winp Slumps of penguin
map of Paris printed on a pocket handkerchief." Guttkow, Briefi aus Pam, vol. 1
:n
g
, s, .6. h fins. The movement of these shapelen resembles the
[B2a,l )
d.eipzig, 1842), p. 82.
cu abon&-the sliding j erkin ddli
ng--o
r
a fool or simpleton." Vi scher,
" V; .. . ,g, pa
[B2a,5J
erniinftlge Gedanken fiber di e j et%i ge Mode," p. 111 .
AprOI)Ol of the medical discull8ion concerning the crinoline: Some people thought
to justify its use, together with that of the petticoat, by noting " the agreeable and
political critique of fashion from the standpoint of the bourgeois:
••Iutary coolnell which the limb. enjoyed underneath.... Among doctors, [how.
en the author of these reasonable opinions first saw bo--l: .
• cu Ulng a traIn, a
ever, ] it is acknowledged that this celebrated coolneas hal already led to chi1.ls , and young . th
was I e st>:le of shin collar, he honestJy thought that he
these have occa. ioned the unfortunately premature end of a . ituation which it was
ooking at a pnest; for this white band encircles the neck at the same height
the original purpose of the crinoline to conceal" F. Th. Vucher, Krituche Gange.
b
"', th",e of the Catholic cleric, and moreover the longsmock was
new series, no. 3 (Stuttgart , 1861), p. 100: "Vernilnftige Gedanken tiber
. On recogruzmg a 'ayman in the , 'hi h '
a
" " very atest,a5 on, e urunediately under·
stood all tha
[B2a,2) .
Mode" <Reasonable Opinions on Current FashionS).
t this shirt collar Signifies: '0 for us _ _ .,,_
' glSone­
, ., ..... , , _·-., .......
co rd . cI
au m uded! why not ? Should we clamor for enlightenment like
It waf "madne.. for the French fashions of the Revolution and the First Empire to
;0Ie Is more distinguished than the leveling effected by a
mimic Greek proportions with clothing cut and . eWD in the modern manner."
hallow sptntualliberalJon, which in the end al ways aims at disturbing the pleas.
[B2a,3)
ure of refined people?'-It may be added that . l. :_ U "
.
Vi scher, " Vernllnftige Gedanken tiber Mode," p. 99.
uu:. co ar, m tracmg a neat little
line around the neck, gives its wearer the agreeable air of someone freshly be­
headed, which accords so well with the character of the blaX." To this is joined
the violent reaction against purple. Vucher, "Vemiinfcige Gedanken fiber die
jetzige Mode," p. 112. [B2a,6)
On the reaction of 1850-1860: ' '1'0 8how one'8 color! ia considered ridiculous; to
be stri ct is looked on as childish. In . uch a aituation, how could dress not beeome
equally colorless, flabby, and, at the aame time, narrow?" Vi.cher, p. 117. He thUI
bringw the crinoline into relation with that fortified "'imperialism whi cb . preads
out and puff. up exactly like its image here, and which, al the last and
expression of the reflux of all the tendencies of the year 1848, &ettlel its dominion
like a hoop skirt over all 88pet!ts, good and bad, justified and unjustified. of the
revolution" (p. 119). [B2a,7)
"At bottom, the.e thinp are l imultaneou. ly free and unfree. It i. a twilight zone
where necessity and humor interpenetrate .... The more fantastic a form, the
more intensely the clear and ironic consciousness worka by the side of tbe servile
will. And this consciousnen guarantees that the foUy will not la8l; the more con­
sciousness grow., the nearer comes the time when it acts, when it turns to deed,
when it throws off the fetters." Viacher. pp. 122-123. [B2a,8)
One of the most important texts for elucidating the eccentric., revolutionary, and
surrealist possibilities of fashion-a text, above all, which establishes thereby the
connection of Surrealism to Grandville and others-is the section on fashion in
Apollinaire's PoUe assassini (Paris, 1927), pp. 74ff.6 [B2a,9)
How fashion takes its cue from everything: Programs for evening clothes ap- ......
peared, as if for the newest symphonic mwic. In 1901, in Paris, Victor Prouvt:
exhibited a formal gown with the title, "Riverbank in Spring." [823, 10]
Hallmark of the period's fashions : to intimate a body that never knows full
nakedness. [83 ,1 )
"'Around 1890 peol)le di scover that . ilk i. no longer the most elegant matefal for
street clothes; henceforth it is aUotted the previously unknown function of linin,.
rrom 1870 to 1890, clothing is extraordinarily expensive. and changes in fashion
are accordingly limited in many C88es to prudent alterations by which new apparel
can be derived from remodeling the old." 70 Jahre deutsche Mode ( 1925), p. 71.
[83,2)
" 1873 ...• when the giant skirt. that Itretched over cushions att ached to the
derriere, with their gathered draperi es. theiTI)leated frilil. their embroidery, and
their ribbons. seem to have iS8ued lesl from the workshop of a tailor than from
that of an uphol sterer." J . W. Samlon, Die Fraue,.mode tier Cegenwar, (Berlin
and Cologne, 1921), ,)p. 8-9. [B3,3J
No inlfllonalizing so unsettling as that of the ephemera and the fashionable
(onus preserved for w in the wax museum. And whoever has once seen her
must, like Andre Bremn, lose his heart to the female 6gun= in the Musee Grevin
who adjwts her garter in the comer of a loge. <Breton,> Na4Ja <Paris, 1928),
p. 199.
1
[83,4]
"The flower trimmings of large white lilies or water liliel with stems of ru.h, which
look so charming in any coiffure. unintentionaUy remind one of delicate, gently
fl oating sylphids and naiades. Just so, tbe fiery brunette cannot adorn her&elf
more delightfully than with fruit braided in graceful little red
currants, even bunches of grapes mingled with ivy and flowering graS8e8-<lr than
with long vivid red velvet fucbsias, whose leave., red-veined and a. thouch tinged
IoVith dew, form a crown; also at her dispo. al is the very lovely coctw 'pecio&w,
\'li th its long white filaments. In general, the flowers cho.en for decorating the hai.r
are quit e large; we saw one such headdreu of very picturel que and beautiful white
roses entwined with large pansies and ivy branches, or rather bouchs. Tbe ar.
rangement of the gnarled and tendriled branches wal so felicitous that it seemed
nature itself had lent a hand-long brancheti bearing budl and long stems . wayed
at the sides IoVith the . lightest motion." Der Bazar, third year (Berlin, 1857), p. 11
(Veronika von C., " Die Mode"). [83 ,5)
The impression of the old·fashioned can arise only where, in a certain way,
reference is made to the most topical. If the beginnings of modem architecture to
'some extent lie in the arcades, their antiquated effect on the present generation
has exact1y the same significance as the anciquated effect of a father on his son.
[83,6)
In my fonnulation: '"'The eternal is in any case far more the ruffie on a dress than
some idea."· 0 Dialectical Image 0 [83,7)
In fetishism, sex. does away with the boundaries separating the organic world
from the inorganic. Clothing and jewelry are its allies. It is as much at home with
what is dead as it is with living Hesh. The lauer, moreover, shows it the way to
establish itself in the fanner. Hair is a frontier region lying between the tv.ro
kingdoms of sexus. Something different is disclosed in the drunkenness of pas­
sion: the landscapes of the body. These are already no longer animated, yet are
still accessible to the eye, which, of course, depends increasingly on touch and
smell to be its guides through these realms of death. Not seldom in the dream,
however, the re are swelling breasts that, like the earth, are all apparded in woods
and rocks, and gazes have sent their life to the bottom of glassy lakes that
slumber in the valleys. These landscapes are traversed by paths which lead
inl,O the world of the inorganic. Fashion itself is only anomer medium
-
entlcmg It still more deeply into the universe of matter. [83,8]
''' Thi, year,' laid ' (u lJions are bizar re and common, simpl e Bnd full of
fantasy. Any material from nature', domain can 110100' be introduced into the com­
position of women' , clothes. J 8aw a channing dress made of A·
. . . . " 8.... lllaJor
designer 18 thinking about launching tailor-made outfiu made of old bookhindings
done in calf.... Fish hones are being worn a 101 on hal s. One often sees delicious
girls dreued like pilgrims of Saint Jametl of Coml)olIlella; their outfits. as is
fitung, are studded with coquille! Saint-Jacques. Steel , wool, sandstone, and files
have suddenl y entered the vestment ary arts.... Feathen now decorate not onl y
hata b,ut shoes, and gloves; and next year they'll be 0 11 umbrellas. They' re doing
shoos 10 Venetian glass and hats in Baccarat crystal. ... I forgot to tell you that
last Wednesday I saw on the bouleva rds on old dowager dressed in mirrors stuck
to fabri c. The effec: t was sumptuous in the sunlight . You' d have thought it was a
gold mine out for a walk. Later it starl ed raining and the lady looked like a silver
mine.... Fashion is becoming practical aDd no longer looks down on anything. It
ennobles everything. It does for materials what the Romantics did for words. 'tt
Guillaume Apollinai re, Le Poete anau ine, new editiOn (Paris, 1927), pp.
(B3a,l ]
A cari caturisl--eirca 1867-representll the frame of a hoop slUrt as a cage in
which a gi rl imprisons hens and a parrot . See Louis Sonol et , La Vie parnumne
sow I.e Second Empire (Paris, 1929), p. 245. (B3a,2]
" It was bathing in the sea ... that struck the first blow agai ll st the 80lemll and
cumbersome crinoline. " Louis Sonolet , La Vie pariJienne JOW Ie Second Empire
(Paris, 1929), p . 247. (B3a,3]
"Fashion atremes. Inasmuch as it seeks the atremes by narure,
there for It nothing more, when it has abandoned some particular form,
than to glVe Itself to the opposite form." 70 Jahre deutJche Mode (1925), p. 51. Its
uttermost atremes: frivolity and death. (B3a, 4]
" We took the crinoline to be the , ymbol of the Second Empire in France-of itll
li e • • i18 hollow and purse-proud impudence. It toppled ... , but ...
the fall of the Empire, the Pari8ian world had time to indulge another
' Ide of Its temperament in women's fashions , and the Republic did not di sdain to
follow ils lead." F. Th. Vi scher, Mode lind Cynumw (SIutt gart, 1879), p. 6. Tile
new fashion to whi ch Vischer alludes is explained: "The dress is cut tliagonally
across the body and stretched over ... the belly" hI . 6). A little later he sl)Ca ks of
the women thus attired as " naked in their clothes" (p. 8). [B3a.5J
Friedell explains, with regard to women, " that the history of their drcu sllOws
surpri singly few variations. It is not mil ch more thall a regular r.otation of 11 few
quickly altering, but also quickly n::instated, nuance!: the lengt h of the train, the
height of the coiffure, the shonness of the sleeves , the fuLLl en of the skin, the
placement of the nediline and of the waist. Even radical revolutions Like the boy­
i.sh haireul8 fashi onable today are only the 'eternal return of the same.'" Egon
Friedell , Kuilrlrgelchichl e l/er Neu:. eil. vol. 3 (Muni ch, 1931), p. 88. Women's
fashions are thus distingui shed, according to the author, from t he more diverse
and more categorical fashions for mCII . (B4,I]
"Of all the promises made by <Etienne> Cabet'e novel Voyage en l earie <Voyage to
learia>, at least one has been reali zed. Cabet had in fact tried to prove in the novel,
'>' hi ch contains hi s system, that the communist state of the future could admit no
product of the imagi nation and could suffer no change in its institutions. He had
therefore balllled from l caria all fashion- particularly the capricious prienes8ea
of fashi Oll , the modistes---as well as goldsmiths and all other professioll' that
serve luxury, and had demanded that dress, uteruils, alld the like should never
be altered." Engliinder, Gelchichte der jr-an:ol u chen A.rbeiter­
Auociationen (Hamburg, 1864), vol. 2, pp. 165--166. [B4,2]
In 1828 the first perfonnance of La Muette fit Portia' took place. IO lt is an undulat­
ing musical atravaganza, an opera made of draperies, which rise and subside
over the words. It must have had its success at a time when drapery was begin·
ning its triumphal procession (at first, in fashion, as Turkish shawls). 'Ibis revolt,
whose premier task is to protect the king from its own effect, appears as a prdude
to that of 1830-10 a revolution that was indeed no more than drapery covering
a slight reshuffie in the ruling circles. [B4,3]
Does fashion die (as in Russia, for example) because it can no longer keep up the
tenlpo-at least in certain fields? [B4,41
Grandville's works are nue cosmogonies of fashion. Pan of his oeuvre could be
entitled "The Snuggle of Fashion with Narurc:." Comparison between Hogarth
and Grandville. Grandville and Lautr6unont.-What is the significance of the
hypertrophy of captions in Grandville? [B4.5]
" Fashi on ... is a witness, hut a witness to the histor y of the great world onl y, for in
C\'ery country ... the poor people have fashionl al little as they have a hist ory,
Il llt! t heir ideas , their tastes, even their li ves barely change. Without doubt ....
IJuhli c lire is hcginning to penetrat e the poorer households. but it will take time."
Eugene Montrue, Le XIX' Jiecle veell par deuxjra"{lliJ (Paris). p. 241 . [84,6]
The foUowi.ng remark makes it possible to recognize how fashion functions as
camou8age for quite specific interests of the ruling class. "Rulers have a great
aversion to violent changes. They want everything to Stay the same- if possible,
for a thousand years. If possible, the moon should stand still and the sun move
no farther in itS course. Then no one would get hungry any more and want
dinner. And when the rulers have fired their shot, the adversary should no longer
be pennitted to fire ; their own shot should be the last." Ben oit Brttht, "FUnf
Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit," Urum: Zeit, 8, nos. 2-3 (paris,
]
Basel, Prague, April 1935), p. 32. (B4a,I)
J!
•
MacOrlan, who emphslu es the analogies to Sur realism in Grandville', work,
draws attention in lhi, connet: tion t o the work of Walt Disll ey. OD whi ch he com­
menta: " It ie Dot in lhe leall t morbid. In \hi, it from the hUDIor of Grand­
ville. whi ch alwaYI bore within itself the leed, of deat h." <Pierre> MacOrlan,
"Gr andvill e Ie precurHeur," Aru et metier. graphique., 44 (December 15, 1934),
<po 24>, (B4a,2)
"The presentation of a large couture collection lasts two to three hours. Each
time in accord with the tempo to which the models are accustomed. At the close.
a veiled bride traditionally appears." Helen Grund, Vom der Mode (Mu­
nich: Privately printed, 1935), p. 19. In this practice, fashion makes reference to
propriety while serving notice that it does not stand still before it. [B4a,3}
A contemporary fashion and its significance. In the spring of 1935, something
new appeared in women's fashions : medium-sized embossed metal plaquettes,
which were worn on jumpers or overcoats and which displayed the ini tial 1etters
of the bearer's firs t name. Fashion thus profi ted from the vogue for badges which
had arisen among men in the wake of the patriotic leagues. O n the other hand,
the progressive restrictions on the private sphere: are here given expression. The
name-and, to be sure, the first name-of persons unknown is published on a
lapel. That it becomes easier thereby to make the acquaintance of a stranger is of
secondary imponance. [B4a, 41
" The creaton of fashions ... like to frequent society and ext ract from its grand
an imprel8ion of the whole; they take part in its a rtistic life, are present at
premieres and exhibitions, and read the books that make a sensati on. In other
words, they are inspired by the ... ferment ... which the busy prescnt day can
offer. But since no prelCnt moment is ever full y cut off from the past , the lalter also
will offer a tt ractions to the creator, ... though onl y that which harmonizes with
the r eigni ng tone can be used. The toque tipped forward over the forehead, a st yle
we owe to the Ma net exhibition, demonstrates quit e simpl y our new readiness to
confront the end of the previous century." Helen Grund. Vom WeJen de r Mode.

On the publicity wa r between the f&8hion house a nd t he fashion columnists: "The
fashion writer 's task is made easier by the fact that our wishe8 coincide. Yet it ill
made more diffi cult by the fact that no newspalH!r or magall ine may rega rd as new
what another has already published . From this we a nd t. he fashi on
writer a re saved onl y by the photogr apher! and de8igneril. who manage through
the pose and lighting to bring out different aspecU of a si ngle piece?f clothing. The
most important magazine. ... have their own photo , tudios, which ar e equipped
with all t he latesl technical and artill tic r efinementi! , and which employ highly
talent ed 81)CCialized photogr apllers .... But the publication of these documelltt it
not pennilted until the customer ha, made her choice, and tll at mean. usuaUy (our
to six weeks after the initial . howing. The reason for thi. measure?_The woman
who appear s in societ y wearing these new clothes will her.elf oot be deni ed the
effect of surpri.e." Helen Grund. Vom WeJen der Mode , pp. 21-22. [85,11
According to the summa ry of the firt t six issue., the magnine publi. hed by
Stephane MaUarme. La Dernikre MO<k (Paris, 1874), cont ains "a delightful .por.
til'e sketch, the result of a conversati on with the ma rvelou. naturalist Towsenel."
Reproduction of thi8 . umma r y in Mino,aure, 2. no. 6 (Winter 1935) <p . 27).
[115,21
A biological theory of fa. hi on that taket iti! cue from the evolution of the zebra to
the hor se, as described in the abridged Brehm (p. 771): 11 " This evolution spanned
milli ons of yean.... The tendency in horses it toward the cr eation of a first-<:Iau
runner and courier.... The mrut ancient of the existing animal t ypes have con­
spi cuously llriped coati!. Now, it is very remarkahle that the external stri pes of the
Ilebra di splay a cert ain cor respondence to the arrangement of the ribs and the
vertebra inside. One can auo determine very clearly the arrangement of these
parte from the unique striping on the upper foreleg and upper hind leg. What do
these stripet signify? A protective functi on can he ruled out .... The stri pes have
been ... preser ved det pite their 'purpose:leuneu and even unsuit ablene88,' and
therefor e they must ... have a particula r significance. bn' t it likely that we are
dealing here with outward stimuli for internal responses, such as would be espe­
ciall y acti ve during the mating season? What can th.it theory contribute to our
theme? Something of fundamental import ance, I believe.-Ever since humanity
passed frOm nakedneu to clothing, 'senseless and nonsent ical ' fashion has pl ayed
the role of wise nature.... And insofar as fashion in iu mutatiOOt ... pre.cribes
a constant revision of all elemenu of the figure, ... it ordains for the woman a
continual preoccupa tion with her beaut y." Helen Grund, Vom WeJen der Mode.
PI' · 7-8.
[115,31
At the Parit world exhibition of 1900 there was a Palais du Costume, in which wax
dolls arr anged before a painted backdrop displ ayed the costumes of various peo­
ples a nd the fashions of variout ages. (B5a,l)
"Out 88 for U8, we see ... around us ... the effects of confusion and waste inflicted
I, y the di sordered movement of the world today. Art know. no compromise wi th
hurr y. Our idealt a re good for ten years! The ancient and excell eut reli a nce on the
judgment of IJOs teri t y has been st upidl y replaced by the ridi cul ous superstiti on of
1/ovel, y. which assignt the most illusor y ends to our enterpr ises. condemning them
to the creati on of what is most perit haLl e. of wha t must be perit hable by its
nature: I.he sensation of newness.... Now, ever yt hing to be seen here has Lt!ell
enjoyed, hal char"led a nd delighted through the centuriel, and the whole glory of
it ca lml y tell l ' I AM NOTIIING NEW. Time may weU spoil the material in whi ch I
exist ; hili for "0 10ll g as il lloes nol de!!troy me, I cannot be deltroyed by the
indifference or COli tempt of ally mall worthy of the name." Paul Valery, " Pream­
hule" (preface 10 the catal ogue of t.he exhibition " Italian Art from Cimabue to
Tiepolo," at the Petit Palais, 1935), pp. iv, vii.' : [B5a,2)
"The ascendancy of the bourgeoi!!ie work!! a change in women's wear. Clothing and
hair8l yles ta ke on added dimension!! ... ; , houlders are enlarged by leg-of-mutton
deeves, a nd ... it wal not long before the old hoop-petticoats came back intO favor
and fuU skirt s were the thing. Women, thus accoutered, appeared destined for a
!iedent ary Iife---famil y Iife-since their manner of dress had about it nothing that
cowd ever IlUggest or &eem to further the idea of movement . It was just the opposite
with the advent of the Second Empire: family ties grew slack , and an ever-incr eas­
ing luxnry corrupt ed morall to such an extent that it became diffi cult to distin­
guish an honest woman from a courtesan on the basil of clothing alone.
attire had thus been transformed from head to toe.... Hoop skirts went the way
of the accentuated rear. Everything that could keep women from remaining seated
was encouraged ; anything that could have impeded their walking wal avoided.
They wore their hair and their clothes as though they wer e to be viewed in proftle.
For the profile is the silhouett e of !!omeone ... who passes, who is about to vanish
from our sight . Orcss became an image of the rapid movement that carries away
the world." Charl es Blanc, "Considerati ons sur Ie vetement del femmes" (Institut
de Fra nce. October 25, 1872), pp. 12- 13. [B5a,3]
" In order to grasp the essence of cont emporary fashi on, one need not recur to
motives of an indi vidual nature, such as ... the desire for change, the sense of
beauty, tile panion for dressing up, the drive to confono. Oouht1eu such motive.
have, at various times, ... pl ayed a part ... in the creati on of clothet .... Never­
theless, fal hi on , as we understand it today, has 110 indi vidual motives but only a
social motive, a nd it is an accurate perception of this social motive that detenoinea
the fun a ppreciation of fashion's essence. This motive is the effort to distingui.!! h
the higher classes of societ y fronl the lower, or more eSIJeciaUy from the middle
classel.... Fashion is the ha rri er--continuaUy raised anew because continually
torn down-by which the fashionahle world seeks to segregate itself from the
middle region of societ y; it is the mad pursuit of that clan vanity through whi ch a
singl e phenomcnon endlcssly repeats itself: the endeavor of one group to establish
a lead, ho",·ever minimal . over its pursuers, and the ellIleavor of the other group to
make III' the llistall ce by immcdiat ely adopting the newest fashions of the leaders.
Tbe characteri sti c features of cont emporary fashion a rc thus explained: ahove all ,
it l origins ill tilt: upper circles and its imitation in the middl e strata of societ y.
moves from top to 1,0110111 , not vi ce versa .... All att cmpt by the middle
to introduce a new fa shion ","oultl ... never succeed , though Ilothing would
suit the "Pller classcs l.lett er than to see the former ",;tli t.heir own set of fashiolll.
([Note:] Whi.:h does nut detcr them from looking for new design.!! in the sewer of
the Parisian deoti-monde and bringing out fashionB that clearly bear the mark of
their unseemly origins, III Fr. Vi.cher ... has pointed out ill his ... widely cen­
sured but , to my mind, ... highly meritoriou. essay on fashion.) 1:lence the UII­
ceasing variation of fll8bioll . No sooner have the middle classes adopted a newly
introduced fll8hion than it ... 10lCa its value for the upper classes .... Thus.
novelty is the indispensable condition for aU fashion .... The duration of a fash­
ion is inversely proportional to the swiftnen of its diffusion; the ephemer alit y of
fashion. has increased in our day all the means for their diffusion have expanded
via our perfected cODllDuniu tiona techniques.... The social motive referred to
above explains, fi.naUy, the third cha racteril tic feature of contemporary fashion:
its . .. tyranny. Fal hion comprisel the outward criterion for judging whether or
not one ' belongs in polite aociety. ' Whoever does not r epudiate it ahogether must
go along, even where he ... firmly refu.!!eJ Jome new development.... With this , a
judgment is passed on fashion .... H the clane. that are weak and foolith enough
to imitate it were to gain a sense of tbeir own proper worth•.. . it would be aU up
with fashion, and beauty could once again aSBume the position it has had with aU
those peoples who . . . did not feel the need to accentuate class differences through
clothing or, where this occurred, were lenswle enough to respect them." Rudolph
von Jhering, Der Zweck im Recht. vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1883), pp. 234--238.
IJ
(B6; 86a,I)
On the epoch of Napoleon III : " Making money becomes the object of an almost
sensual fervor, and love becomes a financial concern. In the age of French Roman­
ticism, the eroti c ideal was the working girl who gives herself; now it is the tart who
sells herself.... A hoydenish nuance came into fashion: ladies wore coUars and
cravats, over-coala, dresses cut like tail coatl, ... jackets a1.11 Zouave. dolmans,
walking sticks, monocles. Loud, harshly contrasting colors are preferred-for the
coiffure as weU: fiery red hair i. very popular.... The paragon of fashion is the
grande dame who playa the cocotte." Egon FriedeU. Kulturgeschichte der
Nerueit, vol. 3 (Muni ch, 1931), p . 203. The " plebeian character" of thill fal hi on
represents , for the author, an "invasion ... from below" by the nouveaux riches.
(B6a.2)
"Cotton fabri ca replace brocades and satim, ... and before long, thanks to ...
the r evolutionary spirit, the dreu of the lower classes becomes more seeml y and
agreeable to the eye." Edouard Foucaud, PU,.U inventeu,.; Physiologie de l'i,ld"s­
trk/ram. aue (Paris, 1844), p. 64 (referring to the Revolution of 1789). (B6a,3)
An assemhlage which, on closer inspection, proves to he composed entirely of
pieces of clothing together with anorted dolls' head •. Caption: " OoUs on chai n ,
mannequins with fal se neckl, fal se hair, fal se attractions-voila Longchamp! "
Cabinet des Euaml)es. [86a,4)
" If, in 1829. we were to enter the shops of Odisle. we would find a multitude
of diverse fabrics; Japanese, Alhambresque, coarse oriental , 8tocoline, meotide,
silcnian, zin'lol iue , Chinese Dagazinkoff, , .. With the Revolution of 1830, .. , the
<"<1111' 1 offashi OIl had Ihe Seine and the ChaUlIlIce d' A.Jllin hall replaced the
IlI'iSlocrllti e flluboll rg." Paul,J"Arisle, La Vie el k mOflt/e <lit boulevard, 1830­
J87Q<Pa ris. 1930). p, 227, (B6a,5]
"The well -to-do bourgeois. as u fri end of order, pays his suppli ers ut least once a
y,'u r ; hul til e man or rashion, Ihe so-called lion, pay& his t ailor e\'ery t en years, if
he pays him at all ," Adu Tage in Pa riJ (Paris, July 1855), p. 125. [B7,1]
" It I who iu\'cnt ed licl. At present , the lorgnoll has replace<1 them, , .. TIle tic
illvlJ lvcs dosing the eye with a (:e rt ui n movement of the lIIouth uud a certain Inove­
IIIt' nl of tilt' coal . , .. Til e ruet' of an elegant man should a lways have. , . something
irrit uted and convulsive abollt it . One can attribut e these facial agi tations ei ther to
a natllral satanism, to the fever of the passions, or filially to a nything one likes!'
l'uriJ-Vi ueur. by the authorl! of the memoirs of BilbO<IIU!t [Taxile Delord] (Paris.
18!J4). "". 25-26. [B7,2]
"The vogue for buying one's .....a rdrobe in London took hol d onl y among men; the
II1110ng wOlllen. even foreigners, has always been to be outfitted in Paris."
Chudes SeignoLos . l1istoire sill cer e de ia natiolljra1l(i aiJe ( Puris. 1932), p. 402.
IB7,' 1
Mar celin, the founder of UI Vie PariJJienne, has set forth " the four ages of the
crinoline. " [B7,4}
The crinoline i5 " til e ulIlIli stakalJl e sym.hol of reaction on the part of an imperial­
ism tlmt spreads out and pUff8 "I) ... , and that ... sellles its dominion like a hoop
skirt o\'\' r ull aspt.'CU, good ali(I Lud, justifi ed and unjustified, of the revolu­
tion , . , , It st:erned II caprice of the moment , and it hus established itself as the
\' lIIhl elil of u pel·iod. like the Second of December. "1-' F. Th. Vischer, cit ed in
£111131'11 Fuchs, Die Kurikutllr der europaischell Vijlker (Mullich <1921» , vol. 2,
1" 156. (B7,5J
In the t'a d y 18<lOs . there is a nucl eus of modistes on the nue Vivienne . (B7,6)
Sirnmcl calls attention to the fact that "the inventions of fashion at the present
time are increasingly incorporated into the objective situation of labor in the
economy . . , . Nowhere docs an article first appear and then becomc a fashion;
rathcr, articles are imroduced for the express purpose of becoming fashions."
'111C contrast put forward in the last sentence may be conelated, to a certain
extent, with that bctween the feudal and bourgeois eras. Georg Sinmlel, PhilruQ­
phiJdu: Kullur (Leipzig, 191 1), p. 34 ("Die Mode'V ) (B7,7J
Sillln".1 I' '' pluin!! " wh y WulIIl' lI ill ,;em·ral ar e Ihe adherent s or fash­
ion. , , , Speci fi ca ll y: rrom t lw wt' ukllr"ss of the SOCillll lO!Oi ti oll to w.hich women ha ve
been condenlll ed for the greater pari or history derive8 their intimate relation with
all thai i5 'elitluctl e. '" GeorgSimmel, PhiloJophische Kli/tur(Leipzig, 1911). p. 47
(" Di e Mode") .'" (B7,8]
The following analysis of fashion incidentally throws a light on the significance of
the trips that "''Crt fashionable among the bourgeoisie during the second half of
the century. "The accent of attractions builds from their substantial center- to
their inception and their end. 'Ibis begins with the most trifling symptoms, such
as the ... switch from a cigar to a cigarette; it is fully manifest in the passion for
traveling, which, with its strong accentuations of departure and arrival, sets the
life of the year vibrating as fully as possible in several short periods. The ...
tempo of modem life bespeaks not only the yearning for quick changes in the
qualitative content of life, but also the force of the formal attraction of the bound­
ary-of inception and end." Georg Simmel, Philruophisdu Xulfur (Leipzig, 1911),
p.4-1 ("Die Mode")." [B7a,1]
Simmel asseru tha t "'fashions differ for different claS&e&--the fashions of the up­
per st rat um of society are never identical with those of the lower; in fact , they are
aballll oned by the former as soon as the latter prepares to appropriate them."
Georg Si mmel , PIu'1050phiJche Kuhur (Leipzig, 1911). p . 32 ("Die Mode")."
[87.,2]
The qwck changi ng of fashion means " that fuhionl can no longer be so ex.pensive
... a. they were in earuer times.... A peculi ar circle ... arises here: the more an
article becomes subj ect t o rapid change!l of fashion, the greater the demand for
cheap products of its ki.nd; and the cheaper they become. the more they invite
consumers and constrain producers to a qui ck change of fashion." Georg Simmel,
PhilosophiJche Kultur ( Leipzig, 1911). pp. 58-59 ("Die {B7a,3]
Fuchs 0 11 Jhering's analysis of fashion: " It must, .. be reiterated that the concern
ror segrega ting the classes is only one cause of the frequent variation in fu hione,
and lhat a second ca use--the private-capitalist mode of production, which in the
int eresu of its profit margin mUSI continually multipl y the possibilitie8 of lum­
o\'er- is of equal importance. This cause has escaped Jhering enti rel y, as hu •
third: the function of erotic stimulati on in fashion, which operatetl most effectively
when the erotic attractions of the man or the woman . ppear in ever new set­
tillgs. ., Friedri ch Vischer, who wrote about fashion, .. twenty years before
Jhcring, did not yet recognize. in the genesis of fashion, the tendencies at work to
keel' the clan cs di vitled ; . .. on the other hand, he was fully aware of the erotic
problellls or tlreu. ,. Eliuanl .' uchs, lllUJ lrierfe SiftengeJchichte 110m !tfiuelailer
bis zlI r Ce,genlUurt : DaJ biirgerliche Zeilailer. enl arged edi tion (Munich <l926?».
PI'· 53-54. [B7a,4]
Eduard Fuchs ( Illll.slrierfe Sitlen,geJchichle lI()m Mitlelaller bis ::ur Gegenwart:
DaJ biirgerliche Zeilail er, enl a rged ed., "". 56-57) cite&--without reference&--a
remark by F. Th . Vifu::her, according to which the gray of men', clothing ,ymbol.
ize, the " utterly blase" character of the masculine world, its dullneu IIIItI inertia.
[BS.I[
" One of the l urest and moU deplorable symptollll of that weakne88 and frivolit y of
character which marked the Romantic age was the childu h and fatal notion of
rejecting t he deepest of technical procedures, ... the cOQlcioul ly
8Ul tained and orderly through of a work . . . -aU for the l a ke of the
l pont aneous impulses of the individual sensibilit y. The idea of works of
value lost foree and way, in most minds, to the del ire to ast oni sh; art
was condemned to a whole series of breaka witb the past . There arose a n automati c
audacit y, which became as obligatory as tradition had been. Finall y, t hat switch­
high frequency--of the tastes of a given public, whi ch il called Fashion,
replaced with iu e8&ential changeableness the old habit of slowly uyles,
schools, and reputations . To say that Fashion took over the destini es of the fine
arn is as much a8 to say that commercial interests were creeping in." Paul Valery,
Pieces sur l'art (Paria), pp. 187-188 (..Autour de Corot "). to (88,2]
''The great and fundamental revolution has been in cotton prints. It has rt!quired
the combined efforts of science and art to force r ebellioul and ungrateful cotton
fabrics to undergo every day so many brilliant transformationl and to I pread
them everywhere within tbe reach oftbe poor. Every woman used to wea r a hlue or
black dreu that she kept for ten yean without wal hing. for fear it might tear to
pieces. But now her husband, a poor worker, coven her wi th a robe of Hower a for
the price of a day', labor , AU the women of the people who display an iris of a
thousand colon on our promenadel were formerly in mourning." J . Mi chelet, Le
Peuple (Pari s, 1846), pp. 80--81.21 (B8,3]
" It il no art , al in earlier times , hut the clothing husweaa that furnishes the
prototype of the modem man and woman. . .. Mannequinl become t he model for
imitation, and the soul becomes the image of the body. " Henri Pollea, " L'Art du
commerce," Vendredi. (February 1937). Compare tics and English faahions
for men. [88,4J
"One can estimate that, in Harmony. the changes in fu hion . .. and the impe rfec::­
ti ons in manufacturing would occasion an aoouaiiosl of 500 francs per pe rson,
since even the poor eU of Harmoni ans haa a wardrobe of c10thea for every sea·
SOil .•.• As fa r as clothing and furniture ar e concerned , ... Harmony . . . aims
for infinite variety with the least poslihle consumption.. . . The excellence of the
products of societa ry industry .. . entail perfection (or euch and every manufac'
tured obj ect . so that furniture and clothing ... become eternal. " cited
ill Arnllmd and Maubhm c, Fourier (Paris , 1937), vol. 2, pp. 196, 198. [B8a. 1J
"This tal te for modernit y is devel0IJed to such an extent that Baudelaire. like
Balzac, extends it to the most lrifting details of fashioll and dre88. Both writers
study theae thinp in themselves and turn them into moral and philosophical ques­
tions, for thele thinp repres.ent immediate r eality in iu keenest, most aggreuive,
and perhapa most irritating gW8C. but alao al it is mOl t generally experienced."
[Note: } " Besides, for Ba udelaire. these matters link up with hil important theory
of dandyism, wher e it is a question, precis.ely, of mor alit y and modernity." Roger
CaiDoil , " Paris, mythe moderne," Nouveik Revuefrarn;aue, 25, no. 284 (May 1,
1937), p. 692. [B8a,2]
"Sensational event! The belle, damu, one fine day, decide to puff up the derriere.
Quick, by the thousands, hoop factoriea! ... But what is a aimple refilU!menl on
illustrioul coccyxes? A trumpery, no more.... ' Away with the rump! Long li ve
crinolines! ' And suddenly the civilized world turns to the production of ambula.
tory bells. Why haa the fair sex forgotten the delighu of hand bells? ... It u not
enough to keep one's place; you must make some noise down there. ... The quar.
tier Breda and the Saint-Gennain are rivals in piety, no leu than in
plasters a nd chignons. They might as well take the church aa their model! At
vespers, the organ and the clergy ta ke tUrDa intoning a verse from the Psalms. Tbe
fine ladies wilh their little bells could follow this example, words and tintinnabula_
tion by turna spurring on the conver sation." A. Blanqui, CrilUJue 'ociale (Paris,
1885), vol. I , pp. 83--84 ("Le Luxe,,).- uLe Luxe" is a polemic against the luxury­
goods industry. (B8a,3]
Each generation experiences the fashions of the one i.mmediatdy preceding it as
the most radical antiaphrodisiac imaginable. In this judgment it is not 50 far off
the mark as might be: supposed. Every fashion is to some extent a bitter satire on
love; in every fashion, perversities are suggested by the most ruthless means.
fashion stands in opposition to the organic. Every fashion couples the
livmg body to the inorganic world. To the living, fashion defends the rights of the
corpse. The fetishism that succumbs to the sex appeal of the inorganic is its vital
nervt. (B9,l ]
Where they impinge on the present moment, birth and death-the former
tJu:ough natural circumstances, the latter through social ones-considerably reo
SlOct the field of play for fashion. This State of affairs is properly elucidated
through two parallel circumstances. The first concerns birth, and shows the
nanual engendering of life "overcome" <a'!/gehobem by novelty in the realm of
fashion. The second circumstance concerns death: it appears in fashion as no less
"overcome," and precisely through the sex appeal of the inorganic, which is
something generated by fashion. [B9,2]
detailing of feminine beauties so dear to the poetry of the Baroque, a process
which each single part is exalted through a trope, secretly Ii.nks up with the
unage of the corpse. This parceling out of feminine beauty into its noteworthy
COnstituents resembles a dissection, and the popular comparisons of bodily pans
to alabaster, snow, prtciow stones, or other (mostly inorganic) foonations makes
the same point. (Such dismemberment occurs also m Baudelaire: "Lc: Beau
Navirc:.")
[B9.3)
Lipps on the somber of men's clothing: He thinks that "our general aversion to
bright colors, especiall y in dothill g for men, evinces very clearly an oft -Doted
peculiarit y of our character. Gray is all theor y; green-and not onl y green but abo
red, yell ow, blue--is the golden tree of life.:: In our predilection for the vari oul
of gray ... running to black, we find an unmi stakable social reAtttion of
our tendency to privilege the theory of the formation of intellect above aU else.
Even the beautiful we ca n no longer just enjoy; rather, ... we must fi rst subj ect it
to criti cism, with the consequence that ... our spiritual life bttomcs ever more
cool and colorless.'" Theodor Lipps, "Ober die Symbolik unserer KJeidung," Nord
und Sud, 33 (Breslau and Berlin, 1885), p. 352. [B9,4]
Fashions are a collective medicament for the ravages of oblivion. The more short­
lived a period, the more: susceptible it is to fashion. Compare: K2a,3. (B9a,I]
Foeillon on the phantasmagoria of fashion: "Most often ... it creates hybrid!; it
imposes on the human being the profile of an animal. ... • "ashion thus invents an
artificial humanit y which is lI ot the passive decoration of a formal environment ,
but that very environment itself. Such a humanity- by turns her aldic, theatrical,
fant astical , architectural- takes, as its ruling pri.nciple, the poeti cs of ornament,
and what it caUs 'line' ... i8 l)Crhal)s but a subtle compromise between a certain
physiological canon . .. aud imaginative design.'" Henri Focillon, Vre des forme,
(Puris, (934), p. 41.:3 [89a,2)
There is hardly another article of dress that can give expression to such divergent
erotic tendencies, and that has so much latitude to disguise them, as a woman's
hat. Whereas the meaning of male headgear in its sphere (the political) is strictly
tied to a few rigid pattcrns, the shades of erotic meaning in a woman's hat are
virtually incalculable. It is not so much the various possibilities of symbolic
reference to the sexual organs that is chieBy of interest here. More surprising is
what a hat can say about the rest of the outfit. H<elen) Grund has made the
ingenious suggestion that the bOtulet, which is contemporaneous with the crino­
line, actually provides men with directions for managing the latter. The wide
brim of the botulet is turned up-thereby demonstrating how the crinoline must
be turned up in order to make sexual access to the woman easier for the man.
[B1O,1)
For the females of the species homo Japims-at the earliest conceivable period of
its existence-the horizontal positioning of the body must have had the greatest
advantages. It made pregnancy easier for them, as can be deduced from the
back-bracing girdles and trusses to which pregnant women today have recourse.
Proceeding from this consideration, one may perhaps venture to ask: Mightn't
walking erect, in general, have appeared earlier in men than in. women? In that
case, the woman would have been the four-footed companion of the man, as the
dog or cat is today. And it seems only a step from this conception to the idea that
the frontal encounter of the two partners in coitus would have been originally a
kind of perversion; and perhaps it was by way of this deviance that the " 'oman
would have begun to walk upright. (See note in the essay "Eduard Fuchs: Der
Sammler und der Historiker.,,)21 [BIO,2]
" It would ... be interesting to trace the effects exert ed by this disllOsition 10
upright posture on the structure and function of the rest of the body. There is no
doubt that aU the particulars of an organi c entit y are held together in intimate
cohesion, but with the present state of our scientifiC knowledge we must maintain
that the extraordinary influences ascribed herewith to standing upright canll ot in
fact be proved .... No significant repercu88ion can be demonstrated for the "rue·
lure and function of the inner organa, and Herder's hypotheses-according to
which aU force. would react differentl y in the upright posture, and the blood
ltimulate the nerves differentl y-forfeit aU credibility as 800n as they are r eferred
10 differences manifestly important for behavior." Hermann Lotze, Mikroko, trIo.
(Lei pzig, 1858), vol. 2, p. 9O. !S (BIOa,I]
A passage from a cosmeti cs prospectus, characteristic of the fashions of the Second
Empire. The manufacturer r ecommends "a cosmetic ... by means of which ladies,
if they 80 desire, can pve their complexion the gloss of rose taffeta." Cited in
Ludwig Borne, Cesommelte Schnften (Hamburg and Frankfurt am Alain, 1862),
vol. 3, p. 282 ("Die Industrie·AussteUung im Louvre"). (510a,2)
[Ancient Paris, Catacombs, Demolitions,
Decline of Paris]
Easy die way that leads into Avt:mw.
_Vrrgil '
Even the automobiles have an air of antiquity here.
-Guillaume ApoLIinaire2
How gratings- as allegories-have their place in hell. In the Passage VivielUlC,
sculptures over the main entrance representing allegories of commerce. [CI ,I]
Surrealism was born in an arcade. And under the protection of what muses!
lel ,2]
The father of Surrealism was Dada; its mother was an arcade. Dada, when the
twO first mel, was already old. At the cnd of 1919, Aragon and Breton, out of
antipathy to Montpamasse and transferred the site of their meet­
ings with friends to a cafe in the Passage de 1'0pera. Construction of the Boule­
vard Haussmaml brought about the demise of the Passage de 1'000ra. Louis
Aragon devoted 135 pages to this arcade; in the sum of these three digits hides
lhe number nine-the number of muses who bestowed their gifts on the new­
born Surrealism. They are named Luna, CoUlltesS Geschwitz, Kate Greenaway,
Mors, Cleo de Merode, Dulcinea, Libido, Baby CaduOl, and Friederike Kemp­
ner. (Instead of Countess Geschwiu: 1ipsc?)3 ICI ,3]
Cashi ci' as Danuc. leI ,. ]
Pall sa nia,. ,1I·o. ilu;C(i his topography of Grt.'ct:tl around ,\ .0. 200. al a lillltl whcll the
"1I1t silo', aluilllllll Yoll, cr JI1OI1I1IlU'nU had bcgullto full into ruin. ICI ,S]
rew things in the history of humanity arc as well knO\Vll to us as the history of
Paris. lens of thousands of volumes are dedicated solel y to the investigation of
this tiny spot on the earth's surface. Authentic guides to the antiquities of the old
Roman city-Lutetia Parisorum- appear as early as the sixteenth cenrury. The
catalogue of the imperial library, printed during the reign of Napoleon III, con·
tains nearly a hundttd pages under the rubrie "Paris," and this collection is far
from complete. Many of the main thoroughfares have their own special litera·
ture, and we possess written accounts of thousands of the most inconspicuous
houses. In a beautiful nun of phrase, Hugo von Hofmannsthal called <this city)
"a landscape built of pure life." And at work in the attraction it exercises on
people is the kind of beauty that is proper to great landscapes-more precisely, to
volcanic landscapes. Paris is a counterpart in the social order to what 'ksuvius is
in the geographic order: a menacing, hazardous massif, an ever-active hotbed of
revolution. But just as the slopes of Vesuvius, thanks to the layers of lava that
cover them, have been transfonned into paradisal orchards, so the lava of revolu­
tions provides uniquely fertile ground for the blossoming of art, festivity, fashion.
oFasruon 0 (CI,6]
Balzac has secured the mythic constirution of his world through precise topa­
grapruc contours. Paris is the breeding ground of his mythology-Paris with its
two or three great bankers (Nucingen, du Tillet), Paris with its great physician
Horace Bianchon, with its entrepreneur cesar Birotteau, with its four or five
great cocottes, with its usurer Gobseck, with its sundry advocates and soldiers.
But above all-and see this again and again-it is from the same streets and
comers, the same little rooms and recesses, that the figures of this world step into
the light. What else can this mean but that topography is the ground plan of this
mythic space of tradition <Tradi/ionsraum>, as it is of every such space, and that it
can become indeed its key-just as it was the key to Greece for PawarUas, and
just as the history and siruation of the Paris arcades are to become the key for the
underworld of this century, into which Paris has sunk. [Cl ,7]
To construct the city topograpruca1ly-tenfold and a hundredfold-from out of
its arcades and its gateways, its cemeteries and bordellos, its railroad stations and
its ... , just as formerly it was defined by its churches and its markets. And the
more secret, more deeply embedded figures of the city: murders and rebellions,
the bloody knots in the network of the streets, lairs of love, and conflagrations.
oFJaneur 0 [Cl ,S]
Couldn't an exciting film be made from the map of Paris? From the unfolding of
its various aspects in temporal succession? From the compression of a cenruries­
long movement of streets, boulevards, arcades, and squares into the space of half
an hour? And does the Bineur do anything different? 0 Flineur 0 [Cl ,9]
' '1'wo 8teps from the Palais-Royal, between thtl Cour des FontaintlS and the Rue
there i, II dark a nd t ortuous Little arcade adorned by II
public scribe and a greengrocer. It could resemLie the cave of Cacu8 or or Tro­
phonius, but it could l1 t!ver resembl e an arcade--even with soot! will and gu
li ghliug." (A]fn:d) Delvau. Le, Denolu de Parit (Paris, 1860), PI" 105-106.
(Ch , l]
One knew of places in ancient the way led down into the under­
·world. Our waking existence likewise is a land which, at cenain hidden points,
leads down into the undernrorld-a land full of inconspicuous places from which
dreams arise. All day long, suspecting nothing, we pass them by, but no sooner
has sleep come than we are eagerly groping our way back to lose ourselves in the
dark corridors. By day, the labyrinth of urban dwellings resembles conscious·
ness; the arcades (which are galleries leading into the city's past) issue unre­
marked onto the stret:ts. At night, however, under the tenebrous mass of the
houses, their denser darkness protrudes like a threat, and the nocturnal pedes­
trian hurries past-unless, that is, we have emboldened him to rum into the
narrow lane.
But another system of galleries runs underground through Paris: the Metro,
at dusk glowing red lights point the way into the undetworld of names.
Combat, Elysee, Georges V, Etienne Marcel, Solferino, Invalides, Vaugirard­
they have all thrown off the hwniliating fetters of street or square, and here in the
li ghtning·scored, whistle-resounding darkness are transfonned into misshapen
sewer gods, catacomb fairies. This labyrinth harbors in its interior not one but a
dozen blind raging bulls, into whose jaws not one Theban virgin once a year but
thousands of anemic young c:mssmakers and drowsy clerks every morning must
hurl themselves. 0 Street Names 0 Here, underground, nothing more of the colli·
sion, the intersection, of names-that which aboveground fonus the linguistic
network of the city. each name dwdls alone; hell is its demesne. Amer,
Picon, Dubonnet are guardians of the threshold. (Cla,2)
" Doesn' t every quartier have il.s true apogee some time before it is full y built up?
At Ihal point it. planet detlcri.bes a curve iii! it draw. near businesses, fir&( the large
and then the small . So long as the st reet is still somewhat new, it belongs to the.
common IH!Ople ; it gets clear of them only when it is smiled on by fashion. Without
naming price., the interested parties dispute among themselves for the right. to
the small housel and the apartments, but onl y so long as the beautifuJ women, the
ones with the r adia nt degance that adornl not only the lalon but the whol e house
and even the I t reet , continue to hold their receptions. And should t he lady become
a pedest rian, sht! will want some shops. and often the st reet must pay not a litlle for
acceding 100 quickl y 10 t hi H WiHh. Court yards are made sDl aUer, and many are
entirely done aWIlY wilh; Ihe houses draw closer loget her. In the eud . there come.
a New Yell r'. Day whcn it is considered bad form to have such an address 011 one'.
visiting ca rd . By tll cn majorit y of tenants are businesses only, and the gateways
of the neighborhood no longer have lIIuch to 10ije if now Illl d agai n they furnish
asylulII for one of the slIlaU IradeSIH!Ople whose mi sera ble 8Iall s have replaced t.hc
<Charles) Lcfeuve, Le, Anciennes Maitons de Paris 'OIU Napoleon /II
( Parisll lltl 1873), vol. I , p. Fashion 0 [Cl a,3]
Ie is a sad testimony to the underdeveloped amour-propre of most of the great
European cities that so very few of them-at any rate, none of the German
cities-have anything like the handy, minutely detailed, and durable map that
exists for Paris. I refer to the excellent publication by Taride, with its twenty-two
maps of all the Parisian arro"disstmenlJ and the parks ofBoulogne and Vmcennes.
Whoever has stood on a street comer of a strange city in bad weather and had to
deal with one of large paper maps- which at every gust swell up like a sail
rip at the edges, and soon are no more than a little heap of dirty colored
with which one tonnents oneself as with the pieces of a puzzle- learns from the
srudy of the PIa" Tande what a city map can People whose imagination does
not wake at the perusal of such a ttxt, people who would not rather dream of
their Paris experiences over a map than over photos or travel notes, are beyond
help. [CIa,4]
Paris is built over a system of caverns from which the din of Metro and railroad
mounts to the surface, and in which every passing onmibus or truck sets up a
prolonged echo. And this great tedUlological system of tunnels and thorough­
fares interconnects with the ancicnt vaults, the limestone quarries, the grottoes
and catacombs which, since the early Middle Ages, have time and again
and traversed. Even today, for the price of two francs, one can buy a
ticket of admission to this most nocrumaJ Paris, so much less expensive and less
hazardous than the Paris of the upper world. The Middle Ages saw it
Sources tell us that there clever persons who now and again, after exacting
a considerable sum and a vow of silcnce, undertook to guide their fellow citizens
underground and show them the Devil in his infernal majesty. A financial ven­
far less risky for the swindled than for the swindlers: Must not the church
have considered a spurious manifestation of the Devil as tantamount to blas­
phemy? In other ways, too, this subtemmean city had its uses, for those who
knew their way around it. Its streets CUt through the great CUStoms barrier with
the General had secured their right to receive duties on impons,
and m the sIXteenth and eighteenth cenruries smuggling operations went on for
the most part bdow ground. we know also that in times of public commotion
mysterious rumors traveled vcry quickl y via the catacombs, to say nothing of the
prophetic spirits and fortunctellers duly qualified to pronounce upon thcm. On
the day after Louis XVI Bed Paris, the goverrunent issued bills
ordering a thorough of these passages. And a few years later a rumor
SUddenly spread through thc population that certain areas of town were about to

1'0 I'ecoll strll ct tht! city ulso from its jotlfCIine, <s pr ings, wells). "Some streets hllve
preserve!1 these ill II llmC, although ti le most ccl ehrata l among them, the Pui ts
d' Amollr <Well of Love), whi dl was located not far from the marktltplace 0 11 tht!
Hue de III Trll auder ie, hll il ht:clI dri e!l , fiJl ed up, and smoothed over wit hout a trace
r!' lII aining. l'lenee, there is hardly anyt hing lefl of t he echoing wells ,.,hieh pro­
vi ded a name for Ihe Hue du Puits-qui- Pllrlt: . or of til t! weUs ,,·hiGh Ill e taliller
Adam-I'Hennit c had dug in I.he quartier Sai nt -Vict or. We ha ve known the Rues de
-
Pll il8· Mali conseil . du du Puita·du-Chs llil re, dll Puils·Certain, du
BOIl-Puiu, and fin all y the Rue dll Pui l8, which, aft er heing the Rue dll Bout-du­
Monde, became the l.mpa88c Saint-Claude-Montmartre. The market pl ace wells,
the buckel-drawn wells. the water carners li Te aU giving way 10 the public weUI,
and our children, who will easil y draw wal er even on the top Ooon of the t allest
buildings in Paris. will be amazed that we have preserved for 80 long these primi­
t ive meallS of supplying oll e of humankind', most imper ious needs." Maxime <ill
Camp, Paris: Ses orgam!l. se!jonctionIJ et 10 vie (Paris, 1875), vol. 5. 1). 263.
[C' ,')
A different topography, not architectonic but anthropocc=ntric in conception,
could show us all at once, and in its true light, the most muted quarrier: the
isolated fourteenth ammdis.ument. 1bat, at any rate, is howJules Janin already
saw it a hundred years ago. If you were hom into that neighborhood, you could
lead the most animated and audacious life without ever having to leave it. For in
it are found, one after another, all the buildings of public misery, of proletarian
indigence, in unbroken succession: the birthing clinic, the orphanage, the hospi­
tal (the famous Sante), and finally the great Paris jail with its scaffold. At night,
one sees on the narrow unobtrusive benches-not, of course, the comfortable
ones found in the squares-men stretched out asleep as if in the waiting room of
a way station in the course of this terrible j ourney. [C2,3}
There are arcruteaonic emblems of commerce: steps lead to the apothecary,
whereas the cigar shop has taken possession of the comer. The business world
knows to make use of the threshold. In from of the arcade, the skating rink, the
swimming pool, the railroad platfonn, stands the tutelary of the threshold: a hen
that automaticall y lays tin eggs containing bonbons. Next to the hen, an autO­
mated forruneteller-an apparatus for stamping our names automatically on a
tin band, which fixes our fate to our collar. [C2,4)
In old Paris, there were executi ons (ror examl)le, by hanging) in the open street .
[C' ,5)
Rodenberg SIH:aks or the "st ygian exi stence" of cert ai n worthl ess securitie8---8uch
as shares in the Mires fund- whi ch are sold by the "small -ti me crooks" of tbe
Stock Exchange in the hOIH: or a " rulure brought to pass by the day' s
market (I uotation,." Julius RodenlH:C!h Pa n.. be; SonnenJchein lind Lampenlicht
(Berlin , 1867), PI" 102- 103. [C2a, 1)
Conservative tendency of Parisian life: as late as 1867, an entrepreneur conceived
lhe plan of having fivc hundred sedan chairs circulate throughout the city.
[C2a,2J
Concerning the mythological topography of Paris: the character it by its
gates. Important is their duality: border gates and triumphal arches. Mystery of
the boundary stone wlUch, although located in the heart of the city, once marked
the point at which it ended. - On the other hand, the Arc de Triomphe, which
today has become a traffic island. Out of the field of experience proper to the
threshold evolved the gateway that transfonns whoever passes under its arch.
The Roman victory arch makes the returning general a conquering hero. (Ab­
surdity of the relief on the inner wall of the arch? A classicist misunderstanding?)
IC2a,3]
The gallery that leads to the Mothers
5
is made of wood. Likewise, in the 1arge­
scale n:novatiorlS of the urban .scene, wood plays a constant though ever­
shifting role: amid the modem traffic, it fashions, in the wooden palings and in
the wooden planking over open sUbStructiOrlS, the image of its rustic prdlistory.
DIron D [C2a,4]
..It is the obscur ely rising dream of northerl y , t reet! in a big city-not only Pari"
perhaps, but al, o Berlin and the largely unknown London--obscurely rising, in a
rainless twilight that is nOnethele88 damp. The street s grow narrow and the houses
right and lert draw closer ultimately it becomes an arcade with grimy
, hop windows , a gallery or glass. To the right and left : Are those dirt y bi81ros, with
waitresse, lurking in black-and-white , ilk blouses? It stink, of cheap wine. Or i, it
the garish vestibule or a bordello? As I advance a IittJe further. however, I see on
both sides smaU , ummer-green doon and the rusti c window shutten they caU
volets. Sitting there. little old ladies are spinning, and through the windows hy the
somewhat rigid flowering plant , 88 though in a country garden, I see a rair-skinned
young lady in a gracious apartment , and , he sings: 'Someone i,
silk ....'" Franz Hes,el, manuscri pt . Compare Strindberg, "The Pilot', Trials ....
[C2a,5]
AI the entrance, a mailbox: last opportunity to make some sign to the world one
is leaving. [C2a,6]
Underground sightseeing in the sewen. Preferred r oute: Chil telet- Madeleine.
[C2a.7J
"1'he rui ns of the Church and of the ari stocracy, or reudalism, of the l\liddle Ages,
are sublime-they fill the wide-eyed victors of today with admiration. But the
ruins of Ihe bourgeoisie will be an ignoble detrilu, or pa' ieboard, "laster, and
coloring. ,. (Honore de Balzac and other authors,> Le Diable aI'liru (Pari s, 1845),
vol. 2, p. 18 (Balzac, "Ce qui wsparail de Paris"). 0 CoUector 0 (C2a,8)
... All this, in our eyes, is what the arcades are. And they were nothing of all this.
"It is only today, when the pickaxe menaces them, that they have at last become
the true sanauaries of a cult of the ephemeral, the ghosdy landscape of damnable
pleasures and professions. Places that yesterday were incomprehensibl e, and that
tomorrow will never know." Louis Aragon, u Paysan tk Pari; (Paris, 1926),
p. 19. 'DCoUeClor O [C2a,9]
Sudden past of a city: windows lit up in expectation of Christmas shine as though
their lights have been burning since 1880. [C2a,lO)
The dream- it is the earth in which the find is made that testifies to the primal
history of the nineteenth century. 0 Dream 0 [Cl a, ll )
Reasons for the decline of the arcades: widened sidewalks, dectric light, ban on
prostitution, culture of the open air. [C2a, 121

1
]
The rebirth of the archaic drama of the Greeks in the booths of the trade fair.
111e prefect of police allows only dialogue on this stage. "1b.i.s third character is
mute, by order of Monsieur the Prefect of Police, who pennits only dialogue in
theaters designated as nonresident." Gerard de Nerval, u Cabaret dt fa M' m:
$aguet (Paris <1927)), pp. 259- 260 ("Lc Boulevard du Temple autrefois et
1
aujourd'hui"). [C3, I)
AI.. the entrance to the arcade, a mailbox: a last opportunity to make some sign to
]
the world one is leaving. [ca,l )
'"
The city is only apparently homogeneous. Even its name takes on a different
sound from one district to the next. Nowhere, unless perhaps in dreams, can the
phenomenon of the boundary be experienced in a more originary way than in
cities. To know them means to understand those lines that, running alongside
railroad crossings and across privately owned lots, within the park and along the
riverbank, function as limits; it means to know these confines, together with the
enclaves of the various districts. As threshold, the boundary stn=tches across
streets; a new precinct begins like a step into the void-as though one had
unexpectedly cleared a low step on a flight of stairs. [ca,3)
AI.. the entrance to the arcade, to the skating rink, to the pub, to the tennis coon:
proa/eJ. The hen that lays the golden praline-eggs, the machine that stampS our
names on nameplates and the other machine that weighs us (the modem gnathi
;eau/on),' slot machines, the mechanical fortuneteller- these guard the threshold.
They are generally found, it is worth noting, neither on the inside nor ttuly in the
open. They protect and mark the transitions ; and when one seeks out a little
greenery on a Sunday afternoon, one is turning to these mysterious pena/(J as
well. 0 Dream House 0 Love 0 [ca, 4)
The despotic terror of the hand bell , the terror that reigns throughout the apart­
ment, derives its force no Jess from the magic of the threshold. Some things shrill
as they are about to cross a threshold. But it is strange how the ringing becomes
melancholy, like a knell , when it heralds departure-as in the Kaiserpanorama,
when it starts up with the slight tremor of the receding image and announces
another to come. 0 Dream House 0 Love a [C3,5]
These galeways-the entrances 10 the arcades-are thresholds. No stone step
serves to mark them . But this marking is accomplished by the expectant poSture
of the handful of people. Tightly measured paces reflect the fact, altogether
unknowingly, that a decision lies ahead. aDrean} House 0 Love 0 [C3,6)
Ot her cour ts of miracles besides the one in the Passage du Caire that is celebra ted
ill Notre-Dame de Pari, <The Hunchback of Not re Dame. ) " In the old Pa ris neigh­
Iw rhood of t he Ma ra is, on t he Rue des Tour neUee, a re the Passage and t he Cour
Miracles. There were other cour, des mirack, on the Rue Saint- Deni s, the Rue
, III Bac, the nue de Nellill y, the Rue des Coquill es, the Rue de Ia Jussienne, t he
Rue Sai nt -Nicaise, a nd t he promontory of Saint- Roch." <Emile de) Labedolliere
lIiJtoire <cles environs ) du nOlw cau Paris (Paris <l86] ?)), p. 31. [The bihlicai
pU$sages aft er whi ch these courl8 were named : Isaiah and 27.J [ca,7)
In reference to Hau8smann's successes wi th t he water suppl y and t he drainage of
Puri s: " The poct8 would say tllat lIau8Smann was inspired more by the divinities
below than by the gods above." Lucien Dll bech and Pier re d' Espezel, lIistoire de
I'a ru ( Pari8, 1926), p. 'US. [C3,S)
Met ro. "A great many of the stations have been given absurd names. The worst
seems to belong to t he one at the corner of t he Rue 8reguet and the Rue Sai nt ­
Sabi n, which ul timately joined t ogether, in t he abbr evi ati on ' Un!guet-Sabin,' the
na me of a wat chmaker and the name of a saint. " Duhech and d ' Espezcl, lIu toire
cle Pam , p. 463. [C3,9)
\\bod an archaic element in street construction: wooden barricades.
[GJ, IO]
June lnsurr(!(: ti on. " Most of t he prisoners were t ransferred via t he qua rries a nd
subt er r a nean paS8age8 which are located under the forts of Pa ri s, and whi ch are so
extensive Ihat haU t he popul ati on of the eity could be contained tbere. The cold in
t hese underground cor r idors is 80 intense t hat many had t o run continuall y or
move Iheir a rms about 10 keep from freezing, and no one daretllo lie down on the
st ones ... . The prisoners gave all the passages na mes of Pari8 streets, and
whenever Ihey met one anot her, they exchanged addresses." Engl ander,
<Ceschichte tier fnlllzosuchen Arbeiter-Anociationen (Hamburg, ISM)), vol. 2,
pp.314-315. [C3a,IJ
' "The Pa ri s stone <llIa r ric8 are ull illlerconnecteti. ... 1.11 se"er al places piUa rs have
heen SCI up so that t he roof docs not ca ve in. III other places tile have bt.'ell
rei nforced. The ..e Wil li s form IOllg pa88ages under Ihe eart b, Ijke narro",' streeU.
On 8e" cr al of them. at the end, numbers have been inscribed to pre"enl wrong
bill witll ollt a guide oll e is not ... likely to vcnture int o these
Scums of limeslone ... if one docs not wi sh .. . t o risk Sla rva tiOIl ."-" The legend
according t o which oll e can scc t he st ars by da y from t in: IlIllnela of t he Paris
<llI arri es"' ori gi nat ed in an old mille shaft " t hai was coveretl over on tilt: sur face hy
II etollc slab in which there is II small hole some six millimetcn in diameter.
-
Through lhill hole, the dayLi ghl ll hincs into the gloom below like II pule sla r. " J . F.
Benzcnberg. Briefe gClIchriebe fl auf eine r Reise noch Pam (Dortmund. 1805),
vol. 1, 1'11.207-208. (C3a,2]
" A thing which 8oJOked and clacked on the Seine, making the noisc of II 8wunming
dog, wenl and came heneuth the windows of the Thileries, from the Pont Royal to
the Pont Loui s XV; il was a of mechanism of no great value, a l ort of toy, the
daydream of II visionary. a Utopia- a steamboat . The Parisians looked upon the
usele8B thing wit h indifference," Victor Hugo, Les Miserable., part I ,' cited in
Nada r, Quondj'elois photographe (Paris d90(b), p. 280. [eJa,3)
"As if an enchanter or II stage manager, at the first peal of the whistle from the fi rst
locomotive, gave a signal to aU thiugs to awake and take flight ." Nadar. Quand
j'etais photoS rcll,he (Paris). p. 281 . [C3a,4]
Characteristic is the birth of one of the great documentary works on Paris­
namely, Maxime Du Camp' s Paris: &J {JTganeJ, m fanctioru et sa vie dam Ifl
seconde moitie du XIX' siecie
J
in six volumes (Paris, 1893-1896). About this book,
the catalogue of a secondhand bookshop says: "It is of great interest for its
documentation. which is as exact as it is minute. Du Camp, in fact, has not been
averse to trying his hand at all sorts of jobs-performing the role of omnibus
conductor, street sweeper, and sewerman- in order to gather materials for his
book. His tenacity has won him the nickname ' Prefect of the Seine in partibw
J
'
and it was not irrelevant to his elevation to the office of senator." Paul Bourget
describes the genesis of the book in his "Discours academique du 13 juin 1895:
Succession aMaxime Du Camp" (Antlzologie de l'Acadimie Frallfdue [Paris, 1921J,
vol. 2, pp. 191- 193). In 1862. recounts Bourget, after experiencing problems
with his vision, Du Camp went to see the optician Seaitan, who prescribed a
pair of spectacles for farsightedness. Here is Du Camp: "Age has gotten to me. I
have not given it a friendly welcome. But I have submitted. I have ordered a
lorgnon and a pair of spectacles." Now Bourget: "The optician did not have the
prescribed glasses on hand. He needed a half hour to prepare them. M. Maxime
Du Camp went out to pass this half hour strolling about the neighborhood. He
found himself on the Pont Neuf. .. . It was, for the writer, one of those moments
when a man who is about to leave youth behind thinks of life with a resigned
gravity that leads him to find in all things the image of his own melancholy. The
minor physiological decline which his visit to the optician had just confirmed put
him in mind of what is so quickly forgotten: that law of inevitable destruction
which governs everything human.... Suddenly he began-he, the voyager to the
Oriem, the sojourner through mute and weary wastes where the sand consists of
dust of the dead- to envision a day when this town, too, whose enonnous breath
now filled his senses, would itself be dead, as so many capitals of so many
empires were dead. 111e idea came to him that it would be extraordinarily inter­
esting for us to have an exact and complete picrurc of an Athens. at the time of
Pericles, of a Carthage at the time of Barca, of an Alexandria at the time of the
Ptolemies, of a Rome at the time of the Caesars ... . By one of those keen
intuitions with which a magnificent subject for a work Hashes before the mind, he
clearly perceived the possibility of writing about Paris this book which the histo­
rians of antiquity had failed to write about their towns. He regarded anew the
spectacle of the bridge, the Seine, and the quay.... The work of his mature years
had announced itself." It is highly characteristic that the modem administrative­
technical ,",,'Ork on Paris should be inspired by classical history. Compare further,
conceming the decline of Paris, U on Daudet's chapter on Sam Coeur in his
Paris vicu <Experiences of Paris). LO 1C4]
The following remarkahle sentence. from the bravura piece. " Paris souterrain," in
Nadar's Quand j'etais photographe: " III his history of sewer s, written with the
geni al pen of the poet and philosopher, Hugo menti ons at one point (after a de­
scription that he has made nlOre stirring than a drama) that , in China, not a single
peasant returns home, after selling his vegetables in the cit y, wi thout bearing the
heavy load of an enormous bucket fi ll ed with precious fertili zer" (p. 124).
[C4a, I)
Apropos of the gates of Paris: "Until the moment you saw the toll collector appear
between two columns. you could imagine yourself before the gates of Rome or of
At hens." Bios raphi4! universelk ancienne et moderne. new edition published UD­
der the direction of 1\1. Mi chaud. vol. 14 (Pari s, 1856), p. 321 (article by P. F. L.
Fontaille). [C4a,2]
"In a book by Theophile Gautier, Caprice, et :;igzaSI, I find a curious page. 'A
great danger threatens us,' it says. ' The modem Babylon will not be smashed like
the tower of Lyl ak; it will not be lost in a sea of asphalt like Pentapolis , or buried
under the sand like Thebes. It will simply be depopulated and r avaged by the rau
of !\Iontfaucon.' Extraordinary vision of a vague but prophetic dreamer! And it
has in essence proven true.... The rau of Montfaucon ... have not endangered
Paris; HaU8Smann's arts of embellishment have driven them off .... But from the
heights of !\Iontfaucon the proletariat have descended , and with gunpowder and
petroleum they have begun the destruction of Paris which Gautier foresaw. " !\lax
Nordau, A/L$ dem wahren i'tfilliurdenlarule: Puriser Srudien urnl Bilder (LeipJlig,
1878), vol. I , pp. 75-76 ("Bell eville"). [C4a,3]
In 1899, dur ing work on the foundations of a tower of the Bastille were
discovered on the Rue Saint-Ant oi ne. Ca binet des Estampes. lC4a,4)
Halls of wine: "The .... arehouse. whi ch conl in s partly of vault s for the spi r its and
partly of will e cell ars dug out of stone, forlllS ..., as il were , a cit y in which the
streets bear the names of the most important wine regions of France. " Acht Tage in
Paris (Paris. July 1855), pp. 37-38. [C4a,51
"The cd lltrs of the Cafe Anglais ... extend quite a distance under 1111: LH,Iulevltrds.
forming t he most comJllicl't ed (I efil es. The management took the truubl e to tlivide
the.m int o slret: ts .... You hl've the Rue du Bourgogne, the Rue du Bonit:au" , the
Rue. du Beanne, the Rue de l' Ermit age, the Rue du Chamberlin, the crossroads of
. Tonnel' u" . You cOllie 10 a cool grotto ... rilled with shellfish ... ; it is the
grotto for the will ee of Champagne . ... The greal lords of bygone daye conceived
the idea of dining in their stablet.... Bul if you want to dine in a really e.cCClllriC
fashion: vivent k s co lJf!s!" Tuile Delord, PariJ-vi veur (Paris, 1854), I)P' 79-81 ,
83--84. IC4a,6]
" Resl assured Ihal when Hugo saw a beggar on the road, . .. he saw him for what
he is, for what he reall y i, in reality: the ancient mendi cant , the ancient suppli ­
ca nt , ... on the ancient road. When he looked at a marbl e slab on one of our
mantlepi l.."(;es , or a cemented brick in one of our modern chimneys, he saw it for
what it is: the stone of the hearth. The ancient hearthstone. Wil en he lookt.-d at a
door to the "reet , and at a doorstep, which is usually of cut stone, he di stinguished
clearly 011 t hi s stone the anci ent line, ,he sacred threshold, for i, is one and the
same line," Charl es Peguy, Oeuvres 1873-1914: Oeuvres de prose
(Paris, 1916), pp. 388-389 (" Victor-Marie, Comte Hugo" ). [C5, 1)
"The will e shops of til e Fa ubourg Antoine resembl e those taverns on Mount
Aventine, above the Sibyl's cave, which communicated with the det: p and sacred
afflatus; taverns whose tables were almost t ripods, and where men drank what
Ennius calls ' the sibyWne wine.·.. Victor Hugo, Oeuvres completes, novels, \' 0 1. 8
(Paris, 1881), IlP. 55-56 (i.es fttiserabks. part 4). II [CS,2)
"Those who have traveled in Sicil y will remember the celebrated convent where,
as a result of tbe earth', capacity for drying and preterving bodiet , the monb at a
cer tain time of year can deck out in their ancient rt'galia aU the to whom
they have accorded the hospitality of the grave: ministers, popes, cardinals , war­
riors, and kings. Placing them in IWO rows wi thin their spacious catacombs, they
allow the Imblic to pau between these rows of skeletons .. . . Well , this Sicilian
cOll vent givcs us an image of our society. Under the pompous garb that adorns our
art and liter ature, 110 hear' beats-there are onl y dead men , who gaze at yOIl with
staring eyes, lusterleu and cold, when you ask the century where the inspiration
is , where the arts, where the literature:' <Alfred) Nett emenl , Les Ruines 1II0ruks
et j,rtellecwelk5 (Paris, October 1836), p. 32. This may be cOlllparetl wilh Hugo's
" A l' AI·c de Triomphe" of 1837. IC5,3)
The last Iwo chapl ers of Leo Claretie' s Purios depuis ses origines jllsqu 'en run 3000
(Paris, 1886) arc enlitl etl "Tile Uuins of Paris" and "The Year 3000." The fi rst
contaills a para phrase of Vi ctor Hugo's verses on Ihe Arc de Triomphe. Tile second
reproduccs I' leclu.re 0 11 the alltiquiti es of Paris that are prClltl rved ill. t he famOlls
" Academie de Floksima ... located in La Cellt! pire. This is a new continent .. .
discovered between Cal)e Horn and the southern territories in the year 2500"
(p.347). IC5. 4]
"There was, at the Chitdet de Paris, a broad long cell ar. This cellar was eight feet
deep below the level of the Seine. It had neither windows nor ventilators .. . ; men
could ent er, but air could not . The cellar had for a a stone arch , and for a
Roor. ten inches of mud .... Eight feet above the floor, a long massive beam
crossed thi s vault from side to side; from this beam there hung, at intervals , chains
... and at tbe end of these chains there were iron coll ars. Men condemned to the
galleys were put into thi s cell ar until the day of their departure for Toulon. They
were pushed under this timber, where each had his iron swinging in the darknets,
waiting for him... . In order to eat , they had to draw tbeir bread, whi ch was
thrown into the mire, up their leg with their heel, within reach of their band....
In thi s hell-sepulcher, what did they do? What can be done in a sepulcher: they
agonized. And what can be done in a hell : they sang.... In this cellar, almost all
the argot songs were born. It is from the dungeon of the Gr and Chatelet de Paris
that the melancholy galley r efrain of Montgomery comes: 'Timaloumisaine, timou­
lamison.' Most of t hese 80ngs are dreary; some are cheerful." Victor 8ugo,
Oeuvres completes novels, vol . 8 (Paris. 1881). IJP. 297- 298 (i.es Miserabks).lt
oSubterranean Paris 0 [CSa,l !
On the theory or thresholds: '''Between th03e who go on foot in Paris and those
who go by carriage, the only difference is the running board,' as a peripatetic
philosopher ha, u id. Ah, the running board! ... It is the point of departure rrom
one country to another, from misery to luxury, from thoughtleu ne8s to thoughtIuI­
nellS. It ill the hyphen between him who i, nothing and him who is all . The question
is: where to put one', foot." Theophile Gautier, Etudes philosophiques: Paris et ks
Parisien! au XIX' sieck (Paris, 1856), p. 26. [CSa,2)
Slight fOTellhadowing of the Metro in this description of model houses of the future:
"The basements , very spacious and well lit , are all connected. forming long galler­
ies which follow the course of the " reet,. Here an underground railroad has been
built-not for human travelers, 10 be l ure , but exclusively for cumbersome mer­
chandise, for wine, wood, coal, and so forth, which it deli vers to the interior of the
home . . . . These underground trains acquire a steadily growing importance."
Tony Mollin, Parios en l'an 2000 (paris, 1869), pp. 14-15 ("Maisons-mode:les'"').
IC5a,3]
Fragments from Vi ctor Hugo's ode " A l' Arc de Triomphe":
"
Always Parill cries li nd muUeu.
Who can tell- unfathomable (IUell ljolt­
What would be 10" from the univerllal clamor
On the day lhal Paril fell ll ilent !
III
Silent it will be nonethelesl!-Alter 80 mllDy dawn,.
It the robe which time JI'flf!' ls from them
Worth the one it puts back on.
So many monthf and yean_ 80 many played-out « nlurie..
It is time whochiseu a Voove
When lhill bank, where the , Iru m breaklll!ain,t the bridges.
In an indigentan:h.,tone.
b relurned 10 the modell l and murmuring reed.;
When the Seine , hall flee the obstructing I tonel,
Consuming l ome old dome coll.pied into illl depth ••
ll eedrul of the sentle breeze thai u n ite to the cloud.
The rul tling of the leavel and the 8On! of bird.;
When il , h.1l ftow, at night. pale in lhedarkneM.
Happy. in the drowsing of il s lons,u'ouhled courte.
To Ii l ten al last to the countle .. voice.
Pan ing indillinctly beneath the atarry Iky;
When thi. cit y, mad and churlith OUllnen!',
Thai h.,lenl the rate reKrved for iu w.u.,
And, (Urning to dUll under the blow. of its hammer,
Convertl bronte to coinl! and marble to ftaptonet;
When the roo£" the bell., the tortuOUS hiVfll,
Porchel, pedimente, archei fu11 of pride
That make up this city, many. voiced Ind twnu1luous,
Stiftinfll, inextricable, and I« milll to Ihe eye,
When from the wide pllin aU lhe.e thlnp bave pined,
And nothing remains of pyramid Ind plntheon
Bultwo granit e tower. built by Charlemagne
And a bronze column raised by Napoleon,
You, Ihen, will complete the sublime triangle!
IV
Thill, arch. you wiUloom eternal and inlact
When aJllhal the Seine now mirron in ita surface
Will have vanished for ever,
When oflhat city-the equI I. yet. of Rome­
Not hing will be lefl except . n .tlfIlfll. an e.pe. a man
Surmounting thn:e . ummi"!
V
No . lime takel nothing away from thinp.
More Ihan one portico wrongly vaunted
In il8 protracted metamorpho.e.
Cornel to he.uty in the end.
On the monuments we
Time casu I IIOmber SI)flU.
Stutching from fa f,ade to 111!!fl.
Never, though it cracks and rul t • •
Who rllhs hi, knowing thumb
On Ihe corner of a harren marbl e 8lab;
h i. he who , in correcting Ihe work,
Introduce. a living . nake
Midsllhe knOb of a vanile hydra.
I think I tee a Cothic roof start laughing
When. from ite ancient !riue,
Time r emovflS I stone and Jluts in a nest.
VUI
No, everythi ng will be dead. Not hinfll le!t in this camJlIgna
But a vani,hed popuiation.llill around,
But the dull eye o! man and Ihe living eye of God,
But an arch, and a column. and ther e, in the middle
or thit silvere<l-over river, atill .foam,
A church half·stranded in the mil t.
February 2, 1837.
Victor Hugo. Oeuvre. comple,e • • Poetry, vol. 3 (Pans , 1880), pp. 233-245.
IC6; C6a,l j
Demolition sit es: sources for teaching the theory of construction. " Never have
cir cumstances been more favorabl e for this genre of study than the epoch we live
in today. During the past twelve yean, a multitude or Luildings--among them,
churches and cloister8--have been demolished down to the first layers or their
foundations ; they have aU provided ... useful instruction. "
Viel , De l'lmpuiuunce de. matllematiques pour aUllrer la solidile des batimena
(Paris, 1805), pp. 43-44. (C6a,2]
Demolition sit es: "'The high walls, with their bister-colored Lines around the chim­
lIey fiues, reveal , like the crosa-seclion of an archit eclUral plan, the myster y of
intimate distri butions.... A curi ous 81)fl(; tac1e, these open houses, with their
fl oorboards suspcnded over the aLyn . their colorful fl owered ....·all papcr still
Showing the shape ofthe rooms, their staircases Icading 1I0where now, their cell ars
0llen to the sky. their bizarre coll apsed interiors and battered ruins. It all resenl'
bles, though without the gloomy tOil e, those uninhabit a ble structures wbich Pin·
nesi outlined with such fe\'ensh int ensit y in his etchings." TheophiJe Ga utier,
Mo.mique de rllines : Pa ri. et leI I'liriaien. au XIX' .ieck. by Alexandre Dumas,
Thcophile Gautier. ArseJlc Houssaye, Paul de Louis Enault, and 011 Fayl
(Paris, 1856), pp. 38-39. IC7, 1]
Condu,.ion of <Louis) !..urine', a rti cle "Le, Boulevards": "The boulevard8 will die
of an a neuri sm: the eXpl 08ion of gas ." Pori., chez soi (Paris (1854». p . 62 (allthol­
ogy issllt.. .. 1 by Paul 8oiza nl). [C7,2)
Baudelaire to Poulet-Maluu is on January 8, 1860, concerlling Meryon: " In olle of
his large "Iates. be 8uhstitut cd for a little balloon a cloud of predatory birds. a nd
when I pointed out to him thai il wu impla usi ble that 80 many eagl es could be
found in a Parisian sky, he answered that it was Dot without a hasis in fact , since
' thoilc men' (the emperor 's government ) had often released caglell to study the
presages according to the rites, and tha t this had been r eported in the newspa­
pers--c,'en in Le Moniteur." 13 Ciled in Gustave Geffr oy, ChMie. Meryon (Pa ril ,
1926), 1)1>, 126- I27. [C1.3)
On the triumphal arch: " The triumph was aD institution of the Roma n state and
was conditioned on til e l)Ossession of the fi eld-eommander 's right- the right of the
mil itary imperium-which, however, was extinguished on the day of the tri ­
umph.... Of the various provisions attaching to the ri ght of triunlph, the m08t
important was tha t the territorial bounds of the city ... were not to be crossed
prematurely. Otherwise the commander would forfeit the rights of the a uspi ces of
wa r-whi ch held only for operations conducted outside the cit y- and with them
the claim to triumph.... Every defil ement , all guilt for the murderous battle (and
perhaps originally tlti s included the danger posed by the spirits of t he slain), is
removed from the commander and the army; it r emains ... outside the sacred
ga leway . ... Such a conception ma kes it clear ... that the porto triumpllalu was
nothing less than a nlOIlUment for the glorification of victory." Ferdinand Noack,
Triumph lind Trillmphbogen. Warburg Library Lectures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928),
pp. 150-1 51, 154. [C7,4)
"Edga r Poe created a char acter who wanders the streets of capital cities; he called
him the Man of the Cr owd. The restlellsly inquiring engraver is the Man of
Stones .... Here we have ... an ... artist who did not study and draw, like
Pira uesi, Ihe remnants of a bygone e:-:istence, yet whose work gives one the 8ensa­
lioll of lHl-rsistent nostalgia .... This is Charles Mer)"on. His work as an engr aver
represent s one or the profoundest poems ever writt en about a city, ami wha t is
trul y origi ual in all these striking pictures is that they seem to lHl- the image, despite
being drawlI directl y from life, of thiugs that are finished , that a re dead or a hout to
die .... This imprcn ion exi sts independeutiy of the must scrupulous and reali sti c
reproduction ur subj ects choscn by the arti st . There was something uf the visioll ­
ur y in Meryon. aud he unduubtedly di vined that these rigid alld unyielding forms
were cphcmeral , thlll Ihelle singul a r beauties were going the way of all fl esh. lie
li8lcne<1 t u til e language spokcn by strects and alleys that , since the ea rli est da ys of
the cit y, were being continually torn "I) and redone; alld that is why hi s evocative
poetry makes contact with the Middle Ages through til e nineteenth-centu ry cit y,
why il ralli utes cterual nlclall chul y through the vi sion of immcdi ate appcarances.
" Old Pa ris is gune ( 111.1 human hea rt I changes half su rast as a ci t y's ru c.c). "I I These
two tines by Baudelaire could serve as an epigraph tu Meryun ' 8 entire oeuvre."
Gustave Geffroy, Charies Meryon (Parie, 1926), PI' . 1-3. [C7a,l )
" There is nu need to imagi ne that the all cient porta triumphom was already an
arched gateway. On the cOlltra ry, since it served an entirel y symbulic act , it wuuld
uriginally have been er ected by the simplest of meall8--nameiy, twu posts and. a
straight lintel ." Ferdinand Noack, Triumph lind Trillmphbogen. Warburg Library
Lectures , vul. 5 (L.e..ip:-:ig, 1928), p. 168. [C7a,2)
The march thruugh the triumphal a rch as rite de pauage; "The ma rch of the
troops thruugh the narrow gateway has been compared to a ' rigorous passage
through a narruw opening, ' something to which the significance uf a rebirtb at­
taches." Ferdinand Noack , Triumph und Triumphbogen, Warburg Library Lec­
tures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928), p. 153. [C7a,3}
The fantasies of the decline of Paris are a symptom of the fact that teclmology
was not accepted. These visions bespeak the gloomy awareness that along
with the great cities have: evolved the means to raze them to the ground.
[C7a,4)
Nuack mentions " that Scipio's arch uood nut abuve but oppusi te the road that
leads up to the Capitol (adver sus viam, (IUa in Capi tulium ascenditur).... We
are thus given insight inlo the purely munumental character of these Uructures,
whi ch are withuut any practical meaning." On t he other hand, the cultic sig­
nificance of these structures emerges as clearl y in their relation tu special occa­
SiODS as in their isulation: " And there, where many ... later arches stand-at tbe
beginning and end of the 8 l ~ t , in the vicini ty of bridges, at the entrance to the
forum, at the cit y limit- there was operative for the ... Rumans a conceptiun of
the sacr ed as boundary or threshold." Ferdinand Noack, Triumph und Tri­
umphbogcn, Warburg Lihrary Lectures, vol. 5 (Lei pzig, 1928), pp. 162, 169.
[ca, l)
Aprupos of the bicycl e: "Actually une should nut deceive oneself about the real
purpose of the fashionable new mount , which a poet the other day referred to as
the horse of the Apocal ypse." L 'lllwtration. June 12, 1869, cited in Vcndredi ,
October 9, 1936 (Louia Cheronllet, "Le Cuin des vieux"). [C8,2)
Concerning the fire that destruyed the hippodrome: "The gossips uf the di slri ct see
in thi s disaster a visitati un of the wrath of heaven on the guilty spectacle of the
velocipedes." ,.£ Gaulois. Octuber 2 (3?). 1869, cit ed in Vendredi, Octoher 9, 1936
(Louis Cheronnet , "Le Coin des vieux"). The hippodrume was the site of ladi es'
bicycle races. [C8,3]
To el ucidate Les Myu erc. de I'(lris a nd simila r wurks, Caillois refers to t.he romon
noir, in particul a r The Myllerie. of Udolpho. on accuunt uf the " prel)onder­
ance of vaults and underground passages." Roger Caillois, " Paris, mythe
moderne," Nouvelle Revue fraru;ai$e , 25, no. 284 (May I , 1937), p. 686.
IC8,41
"The whole of the rive gauche. aU the way from the Tour de Nesle to the Tombe
Issoire ... , is nothing but a hatchway leading from the surface to the depths. And
if the modern demolitions reveal the mysteries of the upper world of Paris, per·
haps one day the inhabitantll of the Left Bank will awaken IItartled to discover the
mysteries below." Alexandre Dumas, Le. Mohicam de Porn . vol. 3 (Pari s, 1863).
IC8,S}
" Thill intelli gence of Blanqui's,. . thill tacti c of silence, this politics of the cata­
combs, must have made Barbes hesitate occasionally. as though confronted with
... an unexpected stairway that suddenly gapes and plunges to the cellar in an
unfamili ar house." Gustave GeCfroy, L 'Enferme (Paris, 1926), vol. 1. p. 72.
IC8,' }
<Regi s) Mes8ac « in Le " Detecti ve Nove' " et l'influence de fa pemu .cientifique
[Paris, 1929] ,> p. 419) quotes fr om Vidocq's Memoire& (chapter 45): " Paris ill a
spot on the globe, but this spot ill a sewer and the emptying point of all sewers ."
[CSa,l }
I.e Panorama (a literary and critical revue appearing five times weekly), in vol­
ume I , number 3 (its last number), February 25, 1840, under the title "Difficult
Qyestions": "Will the universe end tomorrow? Or mwt it---enduring for all
etemity-see the end of our planet? Or will this planet, which has the honor of
bearing us, outlast all the other worlds?" Very characteristic that one could write
this way in a literary revue. (In the first number, "To Our Readers," it is acknowl­
edged, furthennore, that Le PanOTama was founded to make money. ) The
founder was the vaudevillian Hippolyte Lucas. (C8a,2)
Saint who each night led back
The entire fl ock to the fold, dil.igent shepherdess,
When the world and Paris come to the end of their term,
May you, with a firm step and a light hand,
Through the last yard and the Il8t portal,
Lead back, through t he vault and the folding door,
The enti re fl ock to the right hand of the Father.
Charl es Peguy, La Tapinene de Sainte-Genevieve, cited in Marcel Raymond. De
Baudelaire au Surreawme (Paris, 1933) , p. 219.
15
[C8a,3}
of cloisters and clergy duri.ng the Commune: "Even more than with the
incident o( the Rue Picpus, everything possible was done to excite the popul ar
imagination, thanks to the vaults of Saint-Laurent. To the voice the preu was
added publicizing through images . Etienne Carjat photographed the skeletons,
' with the aid of electric light. ' ... After Picpus, aft er Saint-Laurent, at an int erval
of some days , the Convent of the & sumpti on and the Church of Notre-Dame-des­
Victoirell. A wave of madness overtook the capital. Everywhere people thought
they were finding buried vaults and skeletons." Geor ges La ronze, Il i.$ I.oire de la
Commune de 1871 (Paris, 1928), p. 370. [C8a,4}
187 1: "The popular imagination could give itself free reign, and it took every
opportunity to do so. There wasn' t ODe civil-service official who did not seek to
expose the method of treachery then in fashion: the subterranean method. In t he
prison of Saint-Lazare, they searched for the underground passage which was said
10 lead (rom the chapel to Argenteuil-that is, to cross two branches of the Seine
and some ten kilometer s as the crow Ries . At Saint-Sulpi ce, the passage supposedly
abutted the chateau of Versailles." Georges Laronze, Hi.$toire de la Commune de
1871 (Paris , 1928), p. 399. [CSa,S]
"As a matter of fact , men had indeed replaced the prehistoric water. Many centu­
ries after it had withdrawn, they had begun a simil ar overRowing. They had
spread themselves in the same hollows, pushed out in the same directions. It was
down there-toward Saint-Merri , the Temple, the Hot el de Ville. toward Les
Hailes, the Cemetery of the Innocents , and the Opera, in the placell where water
had found the greatest diffi cult y escaping, places whi ch had kept oozing with
infiltrations, with subterranean streams-that men, too, had most completely
saturated the soil. The most densely populated and busiest qltartier! still lay over
what had once been marsh." Jules Romain" Les Homme. de bonne volonte. book
I , Le 6 octobre (Paris <1932» . p. 191 . hI [C9,l ]
Baudelaire and the cemeteri es: " Behind the hi gh walls of the houses, toward Mont­
martre, toward Menilmontant, toward Montparnasse. he imagines at dusk the
cemeteries of Paris , these three other cities within the larger one--cities smaller in
appearance than the city of the living, which seems to contain them, but in reality
how much more populous, with their closely packed little compartments a rranged
in tiers under the ground. And in the same pl aces where the crowd circul ates
today-the Square des Innocent s, for example-he evokes the ancient ossuaries ,
now leveled or entirely gone, swallowed up in the sea of time with all the.ir dead,
like ships that have sunk with aU their crew aboard." Fra m;:ois Porclle, La Vie
douloureuse de Charles Baudelaire, in series entitled Le Roman des Grande!
Existences , no. 6 (Paris <1926» , pp. 186-187. [C9,2}
Parallel passage to the ode on the Arc de Triomphe. Humanit y is apostrophized:
As for your ci ties, Bah-el s of Hlonunumls
Where all event s clamor aI once,
How 8uhslanlial are they? Arche$, lowers, I'yramid!l­
I would not be surprised if, in it s humid incandescence,
The dawn one morning suddenly di ssol ved then"
AloDIl with the on ••1It' . nd thyme.
And . 1I your nohle dwellinll'. m. ny-tiered,
End up heap. of I ione and grau
Where , ill I.he the l ubtl e Ilet'JJent hisllel.
Victor I-Iugo, w fin de Salan: Dieu (Pari., 1911 ), liP. 475-476 C' Dieu- L' Ange"').
[C9,3]
Leon Daudet on the view of Paris from Sacre Coeur. " From high up you can see
thi. population of palaces, monuments, houses, and hovels, whi ch seem to have
gathered in ellpectation of some cataclysm, or of several cataclysm&-meteorologi_
cal, perhaps, or social. ... As a lover of hilltop nnctuari es , whi ch never fail to
stimul ate my mind and nerves with their bracing harsh wind. I have spent houn
on FOllrviereslookjng at Lyons, on Not re-Dame de la Garde looking at Marseilles,
on Sacre Coeur looking at Paris . ... And. yes, at a certain moment I heard in
myseU something like a tocsin, a strange admoniti on, and I saw thete three mag­
nifi cent cities . .. threat ened with collapse, with devastation by fire and flood, with
carnage, with rapid erosion, like foresl8 leveled en bloc. At other tinles , I saw them
preyed upon hy an obscure, subt erranean evil, which undermined the monumentl
and neighborhoods , callsi ng entire sections of the proudest homes to crumble ..• .
From the standpoint of these promontories , what appears most clearly is the men­
ace. The agglomeration is menacing; the enormous labor is menacing. For man has
need of labor, that is clear, bllt he has other need8 a8 well .... He need8 to isolate
himself and to form groups, to cry out and to r evolt , to regain calm and to sub­
mit . ... Finall y, the need for suicide is in him; and in the 80ciety he form8, it is
stronger than the instinct for seU-preservation. Hence. as one looks out over
Paris , Lyolls. or Marseilles, from the heights of Sacre Cocur, the Fourvieres. or
Notre-Dame de la Garde, what a8l0unds one is that Paris, Lyons, and Marseillet
have endured." Leon Oaudet , Paru uecu, vol. I , Rive droite (Paris <1930),
pp.220-221. [e9a,! ]
" In a long !eri es of classical writers from Polybius onward, we read of old, re­
nowned cities in whi ch the st.reets have bec:ome lines of empty, crunlbling shells,
wllere the cattle browse in forum and gymnasium, and til e amphitheater is a 80wn
field , dolted with emergent statues and herms. Rome had in the fifth century of our
era the population of a vi ll age, but il8 imperial palaces were still habitable. "
Oswald Spengler, Le Deciin de I'Occit/enl <traus. M. Tazerout ), vol. 2, pI. I (Paris,
1933), p. 151. 11 [C9a,2]
o
[Boredom, Eternal Return]
Must the SWl therefon: murder all dreams
the pale children of my pleasure grounds?'
have grown so still and glowering.
SatlSfaruon lures me with nebulous visions
while dread makes away with my salvation:""
as though I wen: about to judge my God.
- Jakob van HoddQl
Bon:dom waiu for death.
-Johann Ptter HebeF
Waiting is life.
- VICtOr HuF
Child with its in panorama. The panorama is presenting the Battle
of Sedan. The child finds It all very lovely: "Only it's too bad the sky is so
dreary'o"- "That's what the weather is like in war," 'answers the mother. 0 Dio­
",",,,
.Thus:, the panoramas too an:: in fundamental complicity with this world of
trust , this cloud-world: the light of their images breaks as through curtains ofrain.
[Dl ,l ]
" '1'1 ' P .
. liS arts [of Baudelaire's] is very different from the Paris of Verl aine wllich
hus already faded. The olle is somber and rai ny, like a Paris on the
;olllge of Lyons has been superimposed; the other is whitish and dusty like a pastel
J)' Uaphuel. One is 8uffocati ng, whereas the ot her is airy, with n: w buildings
ill II wast eland , and, Ilot far away, a gate leading to withered arbors."
rall\,Ols Porche. La Vie dQulourewe de Charles BalUleLaire (Paris, 1926), p. 119.
[Dl ,2]
Them .. rr
r e,: euect which cosmic forces have on a shallow and brittle
pc sonahty 15 attested in the rdation of such a person [0 one of the highest and
mOst geniaJ manifestations of these forces : the weather. Nothing is more c.harac.
terucic than that precisely this most intimate and mysterious affair, the working
of the weather on humans, should have become the theme of their emptiest
chatter. Nothing bores the ordinary man more than the cosmos. Hence, for him,
j
the deepest connection between weather and boredom. How fine the ironic
f
overcoming of this attitude in the story of the splenetic Englishman who wakes
up onc moming and shoots himself because it is raining. Or Goethe: how he
]
managed to illuminate the ",,-eather in his meteorological srudies, so that one is
tempted [Q say he unclenook this work solely in order to be able to integrate even
the weather into his waking, creative life. [01 ,3]
Baude.laire 8 S the poet of Spleen de Paris: " One of the central motielJ of tlli, poetry
'" is, in effect . boredom in the fog, ennui and indiscriminate haze (fog of the cities).
In a word, it is spleen." Fram;:ois Porche, La Vie douloltreu.se de Charles Baude·
loire (Paris , 1926), p. 184. [01,4]
In 1903, in Paris, Emile Tardieu brought out a book entitled L'Ennui, in which all
human activity is sho\'lll to be a vain attempt to escape from boredom, but in
which, at the same time, everything that was, is, and will be appears as the
inexhaustible nourishment of that feeling. To hear this, you might suppose the
work to be a mighty monument of uteratuTe-a monument aere perenniUJ in
honor of the taedium vitae of the Romans.' But it is only the sdf-satis6ed shabby
scholarship of a new Homais, who reduces all greatness, the heroism of heroes
and the asceticism of saints, to documents of his O\'lll spirirually barren, petty­
bourgeois discontent. [01,5]
"When the French went into Italy to maintain the ri ghts of the throne of France
over the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Naples, they r eturned home quite
amued at the pr ecautions which Italian genius had taken against the excessive
heat ; and, in admiration of the arcaded galleries, they strove to imitate them. The
r ainy climate of Paris. with its celebrated mud and mire, suggested the pillars,
which were a mar vel in the old days. Here, much later on, was the impetus for the
Place Royale. A strange thing! It was in keeping with the same motifs that, under
Napoleon, the Rue de Ri voli , the Rue de Castiglione, and the famous Rue des
Colonnes were constructed." The turban came out of Egypt in this manner as wen.
Le Diable a Paru (Paris , 1845), vol. 2, pp. 11- 12 (Balzac, " Ce qu.i disparait de
Paris").
How many years separated the war mentioned above from the Na poleonic expe ..
diti on to ltaly? And where is the Rue des Colonnes located?5 [01,6]
"Rainshowers have given birth to <many> advenrures."· Diminishing magical
power of the rain. Mackintosh. [D1 ,11
As dust, rain takes its revenge on the arcades. - Under Louis Philippe, dust settled
even on the revolutions. When the young duc d'O rieans "married the princess of
MeckJenburg, a great celebration was held at that famous ballroom where the
first symptoms of the Revolution <of 1830) had broken out. VVhen they came to
prepare the room for the festivities of the young couple, the people in charge
found it as the Revolution had left it. On the ground could be seen traces of the
military banquet-candle ends, broken glasses, champagne corks, trampled
cockades of the Gardes du Corps, and ceremoniaJ ribbons of officers from the
Aanders regiment." Karl Gutzkow, Briift au; Pam (Leipzig, 1842), vol. 2, p. 87. A
historical scene becomes a component of the panopticon. 0 Diorama 0 Dust and
Stifled Perspective 0 [Ola,l ]
"He explains that the Rue Crange..Bateliere is particul arl y dusty, that one gets
terribl y grubby in the Rue Reaumur. " Louis Aragon, Le Payson de Paru (Paris.
1926) , p. 88. ' [Ol a,2]
Plush as dust collector. Mystery of dustmotes playing in the sunlight. Dust and
the "best room." "Shottly after 1840, fully padded furniture appears in France,
and with it the upholstered style becomes dominant." Max von Bochn, Die Mode
im XIX. Jahrhundert, vol. 2 (Munich, 1907), p. 131. Other arrangements to stir
up dust: the trains of dresses. "The true and proper train has recently come back
into vogue, but in order to avoid the nuisance of having it sweep the streets, the
wearer is now provided with a small hook and a string so that she can raise and
carry the train whenever she goes anywhere." Friedrich Theodor Vtscher, Mode
und ..(jnismUJ (Swugan, 1879), p. 12. 0 Dust and Stifled Perspective 0 [Ola,3)
The Calerie du Thermometre and the Caleri e du Barometre, in the Passage de
(,Opera. [OIa,4]
A feuilletonist of the 18408, writing on the subj ect of the Parisian weather, has
detennined that Corneille spoke only once (in Le CUI) of the stars. and that Racine
spoke only once of the SUD. He maint ains, further, that stars and Rowers were first
discovered for literature hy Chateaubriand in America and thence transplanted to
Puis. See Victor Mery, "Le Climat de Paris," in Le Diable a Paru <vol. I (Paris,
1845), p. 245>. [OIa,5)
Concerning some lascivious pictures: " It is no longer the fan that 's the thing, but
the umbreUa-invention worthy of the epoch of the king's national guard. The
umbrella ellcouraging amorous fant asies! The umbrell a furnishing di screet cover.
The canopy, the roof, over Robinson's island. " John Crand..Carteret , Le
Decolleleet fe relrou.ue (Paris ( 1910» , vol. 2, p. 56. [Dla,6]
"0
Il ly here," Chirico once said. "is it possible to paint. The streets have such
gradat ions of gray .. . . " [D1a, 7]
1' he Parisian atmosphere remi nds Carus
s
of the wa y the Neapolitan coastline looks
when the sirocco blows. CD Ia,8J
i
Only someone who has grown up in the hig city can appreciate its rainy weather,
which a1together slyly sets onc dreaming back to early childhood. Rain makes
j
everything more hidden, makes days not only gray hut unifonn. From morning
until evening, one can do the: same thing-play chess, read, engage in argu­
ment-whereas sunshine, by contrast, shades the hours and discountenances the
dreamer. The latter, therefore, must get around the days of sun with subter·
]
fuges-above all, must rue quite early, like the great idlers, the waterfront loafers
and the vagabonds: the dreamer must be up bd'ore the sun itself. In "Ode
Blessed Morning," which some yean past he sent to Enuny Henrungs. Ferdi­
nand Hardekopf, the only authentic decadent that Germany has produced,
confides to the dreamer the best precautions to be taken for surmy clays.'
[Ola,9]
"
""0 give to Ihis dust a semblance of consistency, as by 80aking it in blood .... Loui,
Veuillot , Le, Odeltrs de Paru (Paris. 1914), p. 12. [Ola,10)
Other European cities admit colonnades into their urban perspective, Berlin
setting the style with its city gates. Particularly characte!is:tic is the Ha?e Gate­
unforgettable for me on a blue picture postcard
by night. The card was tranSparent, and when you held It up to the light, all Its
windows were illuminated with the very same glow that came from the full moon
up in the sky. [02, 1]
" The buildings cOll st ructed for the new Paris revive aU the styles. The ellsemble it
not lacking in a cert ai n unit y, however, because all the styles belong to the category
of the tedious-in fact , the most tedious of the tedious, whi ch is the emphatic and
the aligned. Line up! Eye,jronr! It seenu that the Amphion orthis city is a corpo­
ral. ... I He moves great quantiti es of things---ehowy,stately, coloual-and aU of
them are t etlious. He moves other things, extremely ugly; they too are tedious. I
The8e great 8treetl, thesc great quayli , theae great boules , thele great sewen, their
physiognomy l)I)Orly copied or poorly dreamed-aU have an indefinable 10me
thi
ll5
indicative of unexpected and irregular fortune . They exude tedium." Veuillot , Le.
Oc/eur! de Paris <Paril, p . 9. 0 Haussmann 0 [02,2]
Pelletan describes a vilit wilh a king of the Stock Exchange, a multimilli onaire:
"As I cntered the courtyard of the house, a squad of grooms in red veets were
occupied in ruhhing down a half dozen English horses. I ascended a marble I lair·
case hung with a giant gi lded chandelier, and ellcountered ill the vestibul e a major·
domo with whit e cravat allli plump calves. He led me int o a large glass-roofed
galler y whOle wall l were decorated entir ely with camelli ali alld hotilOuse plants.
Something like l uppresscd boredom lay in the air; at the very first step.
breathe.l a vapor as of opi um. I then passed between two rows of pcr che8 011 wluch
parak(..'Cts from va rious countri e8 were roosting. They were red , blue, green, gr ay.
yell ow. a nti white; but all seemed to suffer from homesickneu. At the extreme en.d
of the !;all ery stood a Imall table oPpolit e a Re.llaislance--style fireplace. for at thil
IlOur the master o£ the house took hil breakfa&1. ... Aft er I had waited a quarter
of an hour, he. deigned to appear.... He yawned, looked sleepy, and seemed
continually on the point of nuddi n!; off; he walked like a somnambulist. His fatigue
had infe<: led the wali ll of his mansion. The parakeeu st ood out like his separate
thoughl$. each one mat erialized and attached to a pole .... " 0 Interior 0 <Juliua>
Hodenberg, Paru bei Sonneruchein unci wmpenJichr (Leipzig, 1867), pp. 104­
105. (02,3]
Feles frant;aises, au Puris en miniatur e <French Festivities. or Paril in Mini­
atu re>: IJrOOuced by Rougcmont and Gentil a t the Theatr e del Varietes. The plot
li as to do with the marriage of Napoleon Ito Marie--Louile, and the convcraation,
at this point, concerns the planned fe8tivities. ""Nevertheless," lI&yll one of the
characters. " the weather iii rather uncertain."-Reply: "" My friend , you may r est
assured that thi s day ia lhe choi ce of our sovereign." He then stri ke8 up a song that
begi ll s:
At his lJiercing glance, doubt not­
The future is revealed;
And when good weather i8 required.
We look to his star.
Cited in Theodore MUTet , L 'Histoire par le theatre, 1789-1851 (Paris, 1865), vol.
I , p. 262. [02,4]
"'This dull , glib ladness called ennw." Lowl Veuillot , U8 Odeurs de Paris (Paris,
1914), p. 177. [02.5]
""Along with every outfit go a few accessorie8 which show it off to best effect-that
iii to say, which cost loti of money beeaule t hey are so quickly ruined, in particular
by e,·cry downpour." This apropOI of the top hat. 0 Fuhion 0 F. Th. Viacher,
Ve rniinftige Gedunken iiber di/? j etzige Mode (in Krituche Gange, new leriee. no.
3 (Stuttgart , 1861», p. 124. [02,6]
are bored when we don' t know what we are waiting fOT.lbat we do know, OT
think we know, is nearly always the expression of our superficiality or inatten­
tion. Boredom is the threshold to great deeds.-Now, it wou1d be important to
know: What is the dial ectical antithesis to boredom? [02,7]
The quite humorous book by Emile Tardieu, L'Ennui (Paris, 1903), whose main
thesis is that life is purposeless and groundless and that all striving after happi­
ness and equanimity is futile, names the weather as one among many factors
Supposedly causing boredom.-lbis work can be considered a son of breviary
for the no,'entieth century. [02.8]
Boredom is a warm gray fabric lined. on the inside with the most lustrous and
colorfu1 of silks. In this fabric we wrap ourselves when we: dream. \>\t are at
home then in the arabesques of its lining. But the sleeper looks bort:d and gray
within his sheath. And when he later wakes and wants lO [ell of what he
-
dreamed, he communicates by and large only this boredom. For who would be
j
able at one stroke to tum the lining of time to the outside? Yet to narrate dreams
1
signifies nothing else. And in no other way can onc deal with the arcades-struc­
tures in which we relive, as in a dream, the life of our parents and grandparents,
as the embryo in the womb relives the life of animals. Existence in these spaces
!
Bows then without accent, like the events in dreams. F'linerie is the rhythmics of
this slumber. In 1839, a rage for tortoises overcame Paris. One can ",'dl imagine
the elegant set mimicking the pace of this crearurt: mort: easily in the arcades than
II
on the boulevards. oFlineur 0 [02a,11
Boredom is always the extema1 surface: of unconscious events. For this reason,
it has appeared to the great dandies as a mark of distinction. Ornament and
boredom. (0231,2]
On the double meaning of the term in French. [02a,31
Factory lahor as economic infrastructure of the ideological boredom of the up­
per classes. "The miserable routine of endless drudgery and toil in which the
same mechanical process is repeated over and over again is like the labor of
Sisyphus. The burden of labor, like the rock, always keeps falling back on the
worn-out laborer." Friedrich Engels, Die Lage der arbritrnden K/asse in England
<2nd ed. (Leipzig, p. 217; cited in Marx, Kapitai (Hamburg, 1922), vol. 1,
p. 388. l! [02a,4]
The feeling of an "inrurable imperfection in the very essence of the present"
(see Les PltJiJirs tiles jours, cited in Gide's homage)12 was perhaps, for Proust, the
main motive for getting to know fashionable society in its innermost recesses,
and it is an underlying motive perhaps for the social gatherings of all human
beings. [02a,5]
On the salons: "All faces evinced the unmistakable traces of boredom, and conyer·
sations were in general scarce. quiet , and serious. Most of these people viewed
dancing al drudgery. to which you had to submit becaule it was SUPI)osed to be
good fonn to dance." Further on, the proposi tion that " no other city in Europe,
perhaps, dilplays such a dearth of satisfied. cheerful. lively faces at its soirees as
Paris does in its salons .... Moreover, in no other society so much as in this one,
and by reaSOIl of fashion no lell than real cOllviction, is the unbearable boredom
so roundly lamented." "A natural consequence of this is that social affairs are
marked by silence and r eserve. of a 80rt that at larger galherinp in other citiel
would 01 0&1 certainly be the exception." Ferdinand von Gall. Paris Iltul seine
Salons, vol. I (Oldenburg, 1844), PI" 151- 153. 158. [02a,6)
The following lines provide an occasion for meditating on tiinepieces in apart­
ments : .. A certain blitheness, a casual and even careless regard for the hun:ying
time, an indifferent expendirure of the all too quickly passing hours-these are
qualities that favor the superficial salon life," Ferdinand von Gall, Paris und seine
Salotu, vol. 2 (Oldenburg, 1845), p. 171. [02a,71
Boredom of the ceremonial scenes de:picte:d in historical paintings, and the: dolce
far nirote of battle scenes with all that dwells in the smoke of gunpowde:r. From
the imagts d'Epi1lai to Manet's E-ctcution 0/Emperor Maximilian, it is always the
same-and always a new- fata morgana, always the smoke in which Mogreby
<?, or the: genie: from the bottle suddenly emerges before the dreaming, absent­
minded art lover. 0Dream House, Museums 0'-' (D2a,8)
Chess playen at the Cafe de la Regence: " It was there that clever playe" could be
secn playing with their backs to the chessboard. It WaR enough (or them to hear the
name of the piece moved by their opponent at each turn to be assured ofwiomng."
IlisloirJJ des cafes de Paris (Paris. 1857), p. 87. [02a,9]
" In SUIII , clastic urban art , after presenting its masterpieces, fell into decrepitude
at the time of the philosophes and the constructors of Iyatems. The end of the
eight ccnth century saw the birth of innumerable projects; the Commiuion of Art·
isu brought them illlo accord with a body of doctrine. and the Empire adapted
them "1thout creative originality. The fl exible and animated classical style waa
succeeded by the systematic and rigid pseudoclauical style .... The Are de Tri·
omphe echoes the gate of Louis XIV; the Vendome column is copied from Rome;
the Church of the Madeleine, the Stock Exchange, the Palais-Bourbon are so
many Greco· Roman temples." Lucien Dubech and Pierre d' Espezel, Histoire
Pari., (Paris. 1926). p. 345. 0 Interi or 0 [03,1)
"The First Empire copied the triumphal arches and monuments of the two clau i·
cal centuries. Then there was an attempt to revive and reinvent more remote
models: the Second Empire imitated the Renaiuanee. the Cothic, the Pompeian.
Aft er this came an epoch of vulgarity without styl e." Dubech and d'Espezel, His·
loire de Pari., Waris, 1926), I) ' 464. 0 Interior 0 [03,2)
Announcement for a book by Benjamin Gastineau, La Vie en chemin defer <Life
011 the Railroad): " La Vie en chemin de f er is an prose poem. It is an
epi c of modern life. alway, fiery and turbulent , a I)anorama of gaiety and tears
Ilassill g before us like the dust of the rails hefore the windows of the coach:' By
LJclljamin Castill eau, Puri., en rose (Paris. 1866), p. 4. [03,3)
Rather than pass the time, one: mUSt invite it in. To pass the time (to kill time,
expel it): the gambler. Tune: spills from his every pore.-To store time as a
battery stores energy: the 8:ineur. Ftnally, the third type: he who waits. He: takes
ill the time and renders it up in altered form-that of expectation.
IO
[03,4)
"This recentl y {Iepoll ited bed 011 which PMri8 rests-readily crum­
hlcs illto a whi ch, like MU limestone dust , is very pMinful to the eyes and lungs.
A little rain doe. nothing at . u to help, aince it i. immediately absorbed allli the
peii. They have had to be exhumed with the hel p of a hrush . if not a pi ckaxe."
J
l urtace left dry once again.... " Here ia the aource of the unprel)0!J8C88ing bleached
gr ay of the houIes, whi ch ar e aU buill from the brittle limestone mined lIt:ar Paris;
H. de Pene. Pari&intime (Paris , 1859), p. 320.
[03a,5]
here, too. the oripn of t he dun-colored B1at e roof. thai blacken wilh 800t over the
1
yean, &8 well a8 the high. wide chimneys which deface even the public huild­
"Thc introduction of the Macadam for pavi ng the houleva rds gave rillc to
ings •... and which in some districb of t he old city stand 80 close together thai
uunl erOUli cari catures. Cham shows t he Pa risians blinded hy dust, aud he pro­
f
they almost block the view entirely." J . F. Briefe g€achrieben (Ill!
poses to erect ... a statue with the inscript ion: ' In recognition of Macadam, from
einer Reile nach Paru (Dortmund. 1805). vol. 1, pp. 112, Ill . [03,5]
the grat eful oculists and opticians.' Ot hers represent IJede8trians 1II0Uuted on
stilt s traver sing marshes and bogs." Pori&.fOU& la Republique de 1848: Expo.fition
(Ie It I
"Engeb told me that it was in Paria in 1848, at the Cafe de I. Regcnee (one of t he
Bibliotheque et des Tra t)(lUX hi.f t oriques de la Ville de Paris (1909) [Poet e,
earliest centers of the Revolution of 1789), that Ma rx first laid out for him the
Beaurepai re. Clouzot , Henri ot], p. 25.
[03a,6]
'" ec!ononUc determinism of his materialist theory of histor y. " Paul Lafa rgue,
"Onl y England could have produced dandyi sm. France is as incapable of it as its
" Personliche Erinnerungen an Friedrich Engels," Die neue Zeit , 23, no. 2
(Stuttgart , 1905). p. 558.
neighhor is incapahle of anyt hing like our ... liont . who are as eager to plealle as
[03,6]
the daudi el are disdainful of pleating.... D'Orsay ... was naturally and pasllion­
ately pleasing to everyone, even to men, whereas the dandies plcased only in Boredom-as index to participation in the sleep of the coUective. Is this the
displeasing.... Between the lion and the dandy lies an ahyn. But how much reason it seems distinguished, so that the dandy makes a show of it? [03,7]
wider the ahYlis between the dandy and the fop! " Larou8se, Dictionnoire
du dix-neuv;eme siecle<, vol. 6 (Paris. 1870), p . 63 (article on the
In 1757 ther e were onl y three cafes in Paris. [03., I} dandy».
[04, 1]
Maxims of Empire painting: " The new a rtists accept only ' the heroic st yle, the
In Ihe second-to-Iast chapter of his book Poru: From I u Origin& to the Year 3000
sublime, ' and the sublime is attained onl y with ' the nude and drapery. ' ... Paint­
(Paris, 1886), Leo Claretie spea ks of a crystal canopy that would slide over the cil y
ers are IUpposed t o find their inspiration in Plutarch or Homer, Uvy or Virgil,
in case of rain. " In 1987" is the title of thi s chapter.
[04,2]
a nd, in keeping with David', r ecommendation to Gros, are supposed 10 choose ...
'subj ects known to everyone.' ... Subj ects taken from conl emporary life were,
With reference to Chodruc-Dudos: are haunted by what was perhaps the
because of the clothing st yles. unwortby of 'great a rt . '" A. Malet a nd P. Grillet ,
remains of some rugged old citizen of Herculaneum who, having escaped &om
XIX' &iede ( Paris, 19 19), p . 158. 0 Fashion 0
his underground
[03a,2)
rerumed to walk again amo ng us, riddled by the thousand
furies of the volcano, living in the midst of death." Mimoiw de Chodruc-Dudos,
" Happy the man who is an observer ! Boredom, for him, is a l'I'ord devoid of
ro.]. Ango and Edouanl GoWn (Paris, 1843), vol. I , p. 6 (pmace). The first
sense." Victor Fournel , Ce qu 'on voit dan! leI rue! de Paris ( Paris, 1858) , p. 27 1.
Bineur among the dic/a.s;iJ.
[04,3]
[03a,3]
The world in whi ch one is bored-"So wha l if onc is bored! What inftucnce can it
Boredom to experienced in epidemic proportions during the 18405.
possibl y ha" e?" " What influence! . .. What influence, boredom, with us? But an
Lamartine is said to be the first to have given expression to the malady. It plays a
enormous influence• ... a decisive influence! For eunui , you St.'e. the Frenchman
role in a litde Story about the famous comic Deburau. A distinguished Paris
has a horror verging on veneration. Ennui , in his eyes. is a lerrihle god wi th a
neurologist was consu1ted one day by a patient whom he had not seen before.
devoted cult following. It is onl y in the grip of horedom tll al Ihe Frenchmall can he
The patient complained of the typical illness of the times-weariness with life,
serious. " Edouard PaiUcron, Le Moncle ou I'on .f'ennuie ( 1881). Act I , scene 2; in
deep depressions, boredom. "There's nothing wrong with you," said the doctor
'>ailleron, Theatre complet. vol. 3 (paris <19 1h ), p. 279.
[04,4]
after a thorough examination. just try to relax-find something to entertain
you. Go see Deburau some evening, and life will look different to you." "Ah, dear
Mi clu:.let ';offers a descripti on, full of inteUigence and coml)assion, of t he conditi on
sir," answered dle patient, "I am Deburau."
[03a.4)
of Ihe fi rst specialized ract ory ...·orkers around I&W. There ....ere 'true heUs of
horedom' in the spinlling and weavi ng mill s: ' Eller. eller, ever. is t he ull varying
Heturn from the Course! de la Marche: " The dust cxc(.oede(1all expectutiolili. The
"'·onl tlullul ering in your ears from t he automatic CtluipmCllt whi ch cven
d egant folk hack from the r aces a re vi rtuall y encrust etl ; they remilltl you of Porn-
til e floor. One can nevcr get used to it .' Oft en the remarks of Mi chel et (for exam­
pl e, 011 reveri e and the rhythms of {lifferent occupati onlJ) anticipat e, 0 11 all ill lui­
live level, the experimentul analyses of modern psychologists. tt Georges Fried.
111111111 . La Crise dll progri!1l ( Pa ri, (1936» , p . 244; quotation from Michelet . Le
Pel/pie (paril> . 1846), p. 83. 1S [04,5]
j
f
Faire droguer, ill the k nsc of fuire attendre. "to keep waiting," belongs to the
argot oC tbe amlie8 of the Revolution and of the Empire. According to <Ferdinand>
]
Bnlllol , Iliatoire de 10 lc,"sue/ram;aue, vol. 9, La Revolution et l'Empire (Pans.
1937) <po 997). [04,6]
Pn"';! ian Life: "The eonlellll)orary scelle ill preserved, like a lp4!(:imen under glass,
in II leit er of to Mel ella given by Baron Stani slas de Fraseala to
" his friend Baron Condremarek. The writer, tied to the 'cold country' in whi ch he
live" sighli for the champagne supper! , MeteOa', sky-blue boudoir, the longs. the
glamor of Paris . the gay and glittering city. throbbing with warmth a nd life, in
differences of sta tion are abolished . Metella reads the letter to the strains or
Offenbach's music, whi ch surrounds it with a yearning melancholy, as
Paris were paradise lost , and at the same time with a halo of bliu as though it were
the paradise to come; and. as the action continues, one is given the impression that
the pi cture given in the leit er is beginning to come to life." S. Kracauer, Jacques
OffenbCl ch und dos Poru seiner Zei t (Amsterdam, 1937), pp.
[04.,1]
"' Romanticism end!! in a theory or boredom, the characteristically modern 8e.Dti­
ment; that is, it ends in a theory of l)Ower, or at least of energy .... Romanticism,
in effect , marks the recogni tion by the individual of a bundle of instincts which
society has a strong interest in repressing; but, for the most part, it manifeslll the
abdication of the struggle .. . . The Romantic writer ... turns toward ... a poetry
of refuge and escape. The effort of Balzac and of Baudelaire is exactly the reverse
uf llus and tends to integrate into life the postulates which the Romantica were
resigned to working with only on the level of art . ... Their effort is tbuslinked to
the myth according to which imagi nation plays an ever-increasing role in life. tt
Hoger Caillois, " Paris. mythe moderne," Nouvelle Revue/ramiaue. 25, no. 284
(May I , 1937), pp. 695,697. [04a,2]
1839: " France is bornd" (Lamartine). [04a,3]
Butltlclaire in hi s essay on Guys: " Dandyism is a myst erious institution, no less
peculiar than the duel. It is of great antiquity, Caesar, Catilille, and Alcibiades
provitling us with dazzling examples; and very widespread . Chat eaubriand having
found it in the forests and by the lakes of the New World. " Baudelairn, L'Art
rolllontilille (Paris). p. 91 .17 (04a,4]
Tim GUYBchapt er in L'A rt romtuuique. 011 dalldi eij: " They a re all
... o( Iha l compelling 1It.'etI , onl y 100 rare loday. for comhating and destroying
t.rivialit y .... DUlldyism j ij Ihe lasl spurk of heroism amid tl ecadence; a nd the t ype
o( dandy tli3coveretJ hy our Iraveler ill North America nothing to
thiij idea; for how call we be thallhose tribes whi ch we call 'savage' may not in
fact be the ciisjecf(J membra of greal extinci civilillations? ... It is hardly neces­
sary to say thai when MOllsieur G. sket ches one of his dandies on paper, he never
(aiJs 10 give him his histori cal personality- his legendary penonality, I would
" ell tllre to say, if we were nol speaking of the present time and of things generally
cIHl sitiered frivolous. " Baudelaire, L'Ar' romontiqlle, vol. 3, ed. Hachette ( Pa ri s).
pp.94-95.
11
[05,1]
Baudelaire describes lhe impression that the consummate dandy must convey: "A
ri ch man. perhaps, but more likely an out-of-work Hercules!" Baudelaire, L'Art
romolltique ( Paris), p. 96.
19
[05,2]
In the essay on Guys, the crowd appears as the supreme remedy (or boredom:
"' Any man,' he said Olle day, in the course of one of those conversations which he
illumines with burning glance and evocative gesture, 'any man ... who can yet be
bored in ,he heart 0/ the multitude is a blockhead! A blockhead! And I despise
him!" Baudelaire , L 'Art romantique, p. 6S. zo [05,3]
Among all the subjects first marked out for lyric expression by Baudelaire. one
can put at the forefront: bad weather. [05,4]
As auribut ed to a certain " Carlin," the well-known anecdote about Deburau (the
act or affli cted with boredom) forms the de resistance of the versified Ewge de
l'ertnui <EnconuulII to Boredom>, by Charles Boissiere. of the Philotechnical Soci ­
ety (Paris. 1860).-"Carlin" is the name of a breed of dog!; it cornel from the fint
name of an Italian actor who played Harlequin. [OS,S]
" Monotony feeds on the new." J ean Vaudal, Le Tableau flair; cited in E. Jaloux,
" L' Esprit des li vres ," Nouvelles fitteroires, November 20, 1937. [05,6)
Counterpan to Blanqui's view of the world: the universe is a site of lingering
catastrophes. [05,1]
On L'E/t:TTIi/i par Ie; astm: Blanqui, who, on the threshold of the grave, recog·
nizes the Fan du Taureau as his last piau of captivity, writes this book in order to
opcn new doors in his dungeon. [05a,1]
On L'E/ernili par Ie; astres: Blanqui yields to bourgeois society. But he's brought
to his k.nces with such force that the throne begins to totter. [05a,2]
On L'Eternili par as/m: The people of the nineteenth u ntury see the stars
against a sky which is spread out in this text. [05a.3]
It may be that the figure of Blanqui surfaces in the "Litanies of Satan": "You who
give the outlaw that serene and hauglllY look" Ckuure;, ) cd. Le
1
II
Dantec, (VOl. 1 [Paris, 1931],) p. 138).21 In point of fact, Baudelaitt did a drawing
from memory that shows the head ofBlanqui. (05a,4]
J
To grasp the significance of nouue4uti, it is necessary to go back to novelty in
everyday life. Why does everyone share the newest thing with someone else?
Preswnably, in order to triumph over the dead. This only where there is nothing
really new. (05a,5]
Blanqui's last work, l'Iritten during his last imprisonment, has remained en·
tirely lUlIloticed up to now, so far as I can 5«. It is a cosmological speculation.
!
,. Granted it appears, in its opening pages, taSteless and banal. But the awkward
deliberations of the autodidact are merely the prelude to a speculation that only
this revolutionary could develop. ~ may call it theological, insofar as hell is a
subject of theology. In fact, the cosmic vision of the world which Blanqui lays out,
taking his data from the mechanistic natural science of bourgeois society, is an
infernal vision. AI. the same time, it is a complement of the society to which
Bianqui, in his old age, was forced to concede victory. What is so unsettling is
that the presentation is entirely lacking in irony. It is an unconditional surTeIlder,
but it is simultaneously the most terrible indictment of a society that projects this
image of the cosmos-understood as an image of itself-across the heavens.
With its trenchant style, this work displays the most remarkable similarities both
to Baudelaire and to Nietzsche. (Letter of January 6, 1938, to Horkheimer.):1:2
[DS••6]
From B1anqw'e L 'Etemite por le, MIre,; " Wha t man does not find him8elf 8ome­
times faced with two opposing courses? The one he dec!line8 would make for a far
different life, while leaving him hi8 particular individuality. One lead8 to mieery.
shame, servitude; the other, t o glory a nd liberty. Here, a lovely woman and happi­
ness ; thcre. fury and desolation. I am 8peaking now for both sexe8. Take your
chances or your cboice---it makes no difference. for you will not e8cape your
destiny. But destiny finds no footing in infinity, which knows no altcrnative and
makes room for everything. There exists a world where a man follows the road
that , in the other world, his double did not take. His exi stence divides in two. a
globe for each; it bifurcates a 8ccond time, a third time, thOllsallds of times. He
thus possesses fuDy formed doubles with innumerable variants, whi ch, in multi ­
plying, always represent him a8 a person but capture onl y fragments of his destiny.
All that one might have been in this world, one i8 in anot her. Along with one',
ent ire existence from birth t o death, experienced in a multit ude ofplaccs, olle also
li ves, in yet other pl aces, ten thousand different vcrsions of it. " Cit(.'(1 in Gusl ave
Gcffroy, L 'Enfernle (Paris. 1897), p . 399. [06, 1]
From I.he conclusion of L'Eter-nile par les astre,; " Wltat I writ e allhis mOJIIClit in
a cell of t he Fort flu Taureau I have written aud sha ll writ e tltroughout all eter ­
nit y- al a t ahle, with a pen, clothed as I am now, ill circuJIIstances like thcse."
Cil ed in Gustave Geffroy. L 'Enfernle (Paris. 1897). p. 401. Right after·this . Gef­
froy writ es: " lie thus inscribes hi8 fal e, at each instant of ils durati on, acron t.he
numberless sta r8. His prison cell is multiplied t o infinity. Throughout the enUre
. h•.,. the same conftned lII au thai he is on this earth, ,.';th his rebellious
uJUvene.
strength and hi s freedolll of thought ." [D6,2]
f rolll the conclusion of L 'Eternile par les «stres: " At the prC8ent time, the elltire
J
life of our planet , from birth to death. with all its crimes and miseries, is being
Ii" ed partly here and partly there, day by day, on myriad kindred planets. What
[
",'e call 'progress' is confined to each particul ar world, and vanishes with it. AI·
ways and everywhere in the terrestri al arena. the same drama, the same setting,
on the same !Iarrow sl age---a noi sy humaui t y infat uated with its own grandeur, r
beli eving itself to be the univer se and living in its prison as though in 80me im­
mense realm, only t o founder at an early date along with its globe. whi ch has borne
with tl eel)est disdain. the burden of human arrogance. The same monot ony, the
same immobilit y, on other heavenl y bodies. The universe repeats itself endlessly
and paws the ground in place." Citcd in Gustave Geffroy, L'EfI/ernie (Paris,
1891), p. 402. [D6a,l ]
Blanqui expre88ly emphasizes the 8cientifi c character of hi s theses, whi ch would
have n O l h i n ~ t o do with Fourierist frivolities . " One must concede that each par­
ticul ar combination of materials and peopl e 'is bound t o be repeatcd thousands of
times in order to satisfy the demand8 of infinity.'" Cited in Geffroy, L'Enferme
(Paris, 1897) . 1). 400. [D6a,2]
B1amlui'8 misanthropy: "The variation8 l)egLn with those living creatures that
havc a will of their own , or something like caprices. As soon as human beill g, ellter
the scene, imagination enten with them. It is not as though they have much effect
on the planet .... Their turbulent activit y never seriously disturbs the natural
progre88ion of physical phenomena. though it disrupts humanity. It is therefore
advisable to a nticipate this subversive inftuenee, which ... tean apart nations
ami brings down empires. Certainl y these brutaliti es run their course without
even scrat ching the terrest rial surface. The disappea r ance of the di srupt ors would
leave no trace of their self-st yled sovereign presence, and would suffice to return
natu re to its virtuall y unmol esled virginit y. " B1amlui , L'Eternite <par les (IStres
(Paris , 1872)), pp. 63-64. [06a,3]
Final chapter (8, " Resume") of Bl allllui's L'Eternite par les (I, tres; "The entire
uni\·crse is composcd of astral systcms. To create them, natu.re has only a hundred
sim,/Ie bodies at its rusposal. Despite the great adva nt agc it derives from these
resources , and the innumerable combinations that these resources affonl its fe­
cundity, thc result is ne<:e88aril y afini re number. like that of t he d cments them­
sch ·es; and in order to fill its expanse, nature must repea t to infinity each of ill
origillal combinations or types . I Su cach heavenl y body, what ever it might bc,
ex.i8ts ill infinite number in time and space. not olil y in olle of ill aspe<:ts but a8 it is
al ellch 8e<:ond of its exi8tente. from birth to death. All the beillgs distribut ed
acrou wll ether large or smaU, living or inanimat e. share the privilege
of perpetuity. I The ea rth one of these heavenly bodies. Every huma n being
is thus eternal at every seeo",1 of hi.s or her existence. What I write at this moment
j
in a cdl of the Fort du Taureau I have written and shaU writ e throughout aU
j
eternit y-at a tabl e. with a pen , clothed as I am now. in ci rcumst ances like these.
And thus it is for ever yone. I All worlds are engulfed. one aft er another, in the
]
revivifyi ng fl ames, to be reborn from them and consumed by them once more-.
monotonous fl ow of an hourglass that etem ally empties and turns itaelf over. The
uew ia alwaya oM, aud the old alwaya new. I Yet won' t those who are intere8led in
extraterrC8tri al life Bmile at a mathematical deduction whi ch accorda them nOI
.. onl y immortality but eternity? The number of our doubl eB ia infinite in time and
alJau. One cannot in good conscience demand anything more. TheM! doublet! erilt
in flesh and bone--indeed, in troUBenl and jacket , in crinoline and chignon. They
are by no mealls phantollls; they are the present eternalized. I Here. nonetheless,
lies a great drawback: there ia no progress, alas, but merely vulgar revisiona and
reprin18. Such a re the exemplanl, the ostenaible ' original editions,' o( all the
worlds ,)ast and all the worlds t o come. Only the chapter on bifurcation. is still
OIJeIl to hOIJe. Let us 1I0t Corget: all that one might have been in thia world, one it
in anotll er. I In this world. progress is (or our descendanta alone. They will have
more of a chauce than we did. All the beautiful thingB ever seen on our world have,
oC course, already been seen- are being seen at this instant and will always be
seen- by our descendanta, and by their doubles who have preceded and will (01­
low them. Scions o( a finer humanity, they have already mocked and reviled our
existence on dead world8, whil e overtaking and succeeding ua . They continue to
scorn us on the li ving world8 from which we have disappeared. and their contempt
for us will have no end on the worlds to come. I They and we. and . U the inhabi­
t ant s of Ollr pl anet , are reborn prisoners o( the momeot and o( the place to which
dcstiny haa auigned us in the series of Earth's avatara. Our continued life depend.
on that ohhe planet. We are merely phenomena that are ancillary to ita reflurree­
tions. Men of the nineteenth century, the hour of our apparitions is fixed
and always brings U8 back the very 8ame ODCS, or at m08t with a prospect o(
felicitoua varianu. There ia nothing here that will much gratify the yearni.ng (or
improvement . What to do? I have sought not at aU my pl easure. but only the truth.
Here there is neither revelation nor prophecy, but rather a simple deduction on
t.he basis of spectra l a nal ysis and Laplacian cosmogony. These two di8coveries
make us eternal. Is it a windfaU? Let li S profit from it. Is it a mystifi cation? Let us
resign ourselves to it . I. . I At bottom, this eternity of the human being among
the star s is a mel ancholy thing, and this sequestering of kindred worlds by the
inexorable ha rri er oC space is even more sad. So many identical populations pas!
away without 8uspccting one a llother 's existence! But no--this has finally been
in the nineteenth century. Yet who is inclined to believe it? I Until
now, the past has . for us, meant barharism, whereas the Cuture has signified pro­
happincs8, illusion! This past. on all our counterpa rt worlds. has
seen the 111 081 hrilliant civililil ati ons disappear without leaving a trace. and they will
continue 10 lliJlII IJIl'ea r without leavi ng a trace. The future will wit.Aen yet again. on
billiolls of world., t he iplOrance, folly, and cruelt y of our bygone eras! I At the
present time, the entire life of our planet , from birt.h to death. with all ita crimes
and miseri es, is heill g li ved partl y here and partl y there. tlay by day, on myriad
kindred planets . What we call 'progr eu' is confinetilO each particular world, and
"anishes with it. Always and e\'cr ywlU!re in the terrestri al a rena , the same drama,
t.he same setting, on the sa lli e narrow noi sy humanit y infatuated with iu
own grandeur, believing itself to be the univerBe and living in its prison as though
in SOlin: immense rea lm, onl y to (ounder a t an ea rl y date along with its pohe, which
has borne with deelM!8t disdain the burden of human a rrogance. The same monot ­
ony, the Jlame immobilit y, on ot her heavenly bodies . The universe repeats itself
endlessly and (l aws the ground ill place. In inflDit y, eternit y performs--imper_
turbably- the same routine8." Auguste B1allllui , L 'Eternite par ies (J$tres: Hy­
a5tronomique (Paria. 1872). pp. 73-76. The elided paragraph dweUs on
the "consolation" afforded by the idea that the doublea of 10'·00 ones departed
from Earth are at this very hour keel'ing our own doubles company on a nother
pl anet. [D7; D7a)
" Let us think thi s thought in its most terribl e form: e,ustence as it is, without
·meaning or aim, yet recurring iuevitably without any fmale into nothingness: the
eterrlal retllm [po 45].... We deny end goals: if existence had one, it would have
to have been reaehed ." Friedrich Nietzsche. Ce$ammelte Werke (Mullich (1926» ,
vol. 18 (Ti, e Will to Power, book I). p. 46.
Z3
[D8,I)
"The doctri.ne of eternal recurrence would have scholarly presuppositions."
Nietzsche. Ge5ammelte Werke (Muni ch). vol. 18 (The Will to Power, book 1),
1' . 49.
ZI
[D8,2)
"The old habit , however, of Buociating a goal with every e,·ent ... is 80 powerful
that it ret:luircs an effort for B thinker lIot to CaU into thinking oC the very aimless­
lIess of the world a8 int ended . Thi8 notion- that the world intentionally avoids a
goal ...- lIlust occur to all those who would like to force on the world the capacity
for eternCii novelty (p. 369).... The world, as for ce, may Dot be thought of 8S
II l1linuted, for it camlOI be 80 thought of. ... Thus--the world also lacks the
capacity for eternal novelt y. '" Nietzsche. Gesammelte Werke. vol. 19 (The WiU to
/)o,,;er, hook 4). 1'. 370.
15
[D8,31
'· The ....orld ... lives 011 itself: it s cxcr emcnt s are nourishment. " Nietzsche.
Cesulllmelte Werke , vol. 19 (Ti, e Will 10 Power. book 4), 1' . 371.:'; [D8,4)
The .... orld " witllG!!t goul, unl ess the joy of the circle is itst:lf a goal; without will.
unl ess a rill g fl!i! ls good willluwartl Nicl zllcI, e. Cesammelte Werl.-e. vol. 19
(The Will to I'ower, hook 4), p. 374. 2: [D8,5)
On eternltl recurrCll ce: " The great tlmught II Met lusa heatl: all of the
""orltl become lIl otjonl esH. II frozen deull, throe. -- Frietlrich Nietzsche, GestUFlmelle
if'erke (M uni ch ( 1925», vol. 14 (Unpllbfislled PCI/Jers_ 1882-/ 888), p. 188.
!DB,. ]
I
"We have created the weightiest thought- now let '" creote the being for whom it
is light and piell.si llg! " Nietzsche, Ge80 mmelte Werke (Mull ich). vol. I" (U'lpub­
lished Poper8. 1882_1888j, p. 179. [08,7J
j
Analogy between Engels and Blanqui : each turned to the natural sciences late in
]
lifo. (D8,8)
"If the world mlly be thought of as a certain definite quantit y of force and a& a
certain defmite number of centers of force--and every other representation re­
mains ... weleu-it follows that, in the great dice game of existence, it must pas8
..
through a calculabl e number of combinations. In infinite time, every possible
combination would at some time or another be realized; more: it would be r ealized
an infinite number of times. And since between every combination and its next
recurrence aU othcr p088ible comhinations would have to take place, ... a circu­
lar movement of ab80lutely identical series is thus demonstrated.... This concep­
tion is not simply a mechanisti c conception; for if it were that , it would 1I0t
condition an infinite recurrence of identical cases but a filial slate. Because the
world has not reached this, mechanistic theory must be considered an imperfect
and merely provisional hypothesis." Nietzsche, Gesammelte Werke (Muni ch
<1926» , vol. 19 (The WiUto Powe,.., book 4) , p. 373.28 [08a, IJ
the idea of eternal reCl.llTeIlcc, the historicism of the nineteenth century cap­
SIZes. As a result, every tradition, even the most recent. becomes the legacy of
that has already run its course in the immemorial night of the ages.
TradilJon hencefonh assumes the character of a phantasmagoria in which primal
history enters the scene in ultramodern get-up. [08a,2J
Nietzsche's remark that the doctrine of eternal recurrence does not cnbrace
mechanism seems to turn the phenomenon of the J>r:rPetuum mobile (for the world
v.'Ould be nothing else, according to his teachings) into an argument against the
mechanistic conception of the world. [08a,3)
On the problem of modernit y and antiquity. "The existence that has lost its stabil­
it y and its and the world that has lost its coherence and its significance,
come together in the will of ' the eternal recurrence of the same' as the attempt to
repeat---on the pea k of modernity, in a symbol- til e life whi ch the Greeks lived
within the living cosmos of the vislLle worM ." Karl Lowith. Nietzsches Philosophie
lIe,.. ewigen Wiede,..kllnft del Gleichen (Berli n, 1935), p. 83. [08a.4)
i'Eternili par ItJ a.strtJ was written four, at most five, years after Baudelaire' s
death (contemporaneously with the Paris Commune?) _- This text shows what
the stars are doing in that world from which Baudelaire, with good reason,
excl uded them.
(D9,I)
The idea of eternal recurrence conjures the phantasmagoria of happiness from
the misery of the Founders Years?9 This doctrine is an attempt to reconcile the
mutually contradictory tendencies of desire: that of repetition and that of eter­
nity. Such heroism has its .counterpart in the heroism of Baudelaire, who conjures
the phantasmagoria of modernity from the misery of the Second Empire.
(D9,2)
The notion of eternal return appeared at a time when the bourgeoisie no longer
dared count on the impending development of the system of production which
they had set going. The thought of Zarathustra and of etcrnal recurrence belongs
together with the embroidered motto.seen on pillows: "Only a quarter hour."
(D9,3)
Critiifue of the doctrine of eternal recurrence: "As lI atural scientist ... , Nietzsche
is II philosophizing dilettante, and li S founder of a religion he is a ' hybrid of
sickness and wiJI to power '" [preface 10 Ecce Homo] (p. 83).30 "The entire doctrine
thus seems to he nothing other than an experiment of the human will and an
auempt to eternali%e aU our doings and failings, an athei&tic surrogate for reli gion.
With this accords the homiletic style and the composition of Zar'athustro , which
dOwn to its tiniest details often imitates the New Testament" (PI). 86--37). Karl
Uiwith, Nietzsches Phiu,sophie de,.. ewig6fl Wiede,..kllnjt des GIeichen (Berlin ,
1935). (D9,4)
There is a handwritten draft in which Caesar instead of ZarathUStra is the bearer
of Nietzsche' s tidings (LOwith, p. 73). lOat is of no little momenL It underscores
the fact that Nietzsche had an inkling of his doettine's complicity with imperial·
ISm. [09,5)
Lowith call s Nietzsche's " new divination ... the syntilesis of divination from the
stKrS with divination from nothingness. which is the last verit y in the desert of the
freedom of individual capacity" (p. 81). [09,6J
From "u s Etoiles" <The Stars>, by Lamartine:
Thus theBe globes of gold . t.heBe islands of light .
Sou gil t instinctively by the dN!aming eye.
Flash up by the thousands from fugitive shadow.
Like pillerinfj; dust on the tncks of night ;
And the hreath of the evening that Riel in il8 wake
Semb them swirling through the radiance of space.
All thut we seek- Io\' e. truth.
These fruil' of the sky, full en on eart h's palat e.
TI,rollgh,)ut your brilliant cli mel we long 10 see­
Nourish fore\' er the children of life;
t\"d one day man l>erha l"" hi8 ,l e' lin)' fulfilleo.l .
Will reccn' er in )·ou all the he
de) Lamurtine, completes, vol. I (Pari,. 1850), PI' . 22 1. 224
( J\MrlitmiOlI8). TJ.ill metlitation c10llell wilh a re\'crie in .... hicl. Lamartine ill pleused
to imagine luntllclf trullsformed into a star alllong stars. [09a, l]
From " L' lnfini dana lea cieux" <Il1finit y ill the Skiel), by w martiue:
Man, nonethdeu, Ihat imli 8covcrabl e in&ecl .
j
Cr awling abo ul the hoUowB of a n obscure orb,
Ta ke1l the measure of these fi er,· pla neu,
]
them their pl ace in the heavens.
Thinki ng. wilh handslhal cannot manage t he compass,
To aifl Bu n8 li ke Vains of land.
f
And Saturn bedimmed by it s dista nt ring!
l..amartlne, Oeuvre, complete, (Parit, 1850), pp. 81-82, 82 (Jl armonie, poe,iques
..
e, relis iel/Je,) . (09a,2]
Dislocation of hell: "And, fmally, what is the place of punishments? All regions of
the uni verse in a condition analogous to that of the eanh, and still worse." Jean
Reynaud, Terre et ciel (Paris, 1854), p. 37Z 1b.is uncommonly faruow book pre­
sents its theologica1 syncretism, its p/lliosophie religieuJe, as the new theology. The
eternity of hell 's tonnents is a heresy: "The ancient trilogy of Earth. Sky, and
Underworld 6nds itself reduced, in the end, to the druidical duality of Eanh and
Sky" (p. xili). !D9.,31
Waiting is, in a sense, the lined interior of boredom. (Hebel: boredom waits for
death.) (09a,4]
" I alway! arrived first. It was my lot to wait for her.... J .-J . Rousseau, Le, Confe.­
, iom, ed . HilsulII (Paris( 193 1» , vol. 3, p. 11 5.
31
(09a,5]
First intimation of tbe doctr ine of ett! rnal rt!currence at tbe end of the fourth book
of Diefrohliche Wi.uenschaft : " How. if 80me day or night a demon "'ere to sneak
after you into your loneliest )olleline88 and say to you: 'Tlu8 li£e as you now live it
ulld bave li ved it , you will have to li ve once more and innumerable times more; and
there ,.d U be nothing ne'" in it , but ever y pain and every j oy and every thought and
sigh and everything immeasurably smaU or great in your life must return to you­
all i..II tht! same succession and Se(lut!lI ce--even this spider and this moonlight
between the trees, and e\'ell this 1II0ment alld I my8eLf. The eternal hourglau of
e:ll: istence is tur ned over and ovt!r, and yOIl wi th it , a grain of (luHt .' Would you
lI ot ... curse the delll oll who spoke thus? Or did you once eXl.erience a tremen­
dous moment when YOIl would hU\'e answeretl him: ' You are a god and never bave
I helml lI uything more godl y!"'J2 Cil t!d ill Lowith, Niet:ache, 1'l!iwsophie der
ell:igen Wiederkmift <des Gleichen (Berlin. 1935), p. 57-58. (010, IJ
Blanqui 's theory as a ripi titi()1I du mythe-a fundamental example of the primal
history of the nineteenth century. In every century, humanity has to be held back
a grade in school. Sec the basic fomlUlation of the problem of primal hisLOry, of
UrgeJchichte, in N3a,2; also N4, 1. [0 10,2)
"Eternal return" is ulefondamentalfoml of the urgeJ(;hichllichen, mythic conscious­
ness. (Mythic because it does not reflect.) (010,3]
L'Eternite pu. r res u. 5t re, should be compared with the spirit of '48, 8!1 it animate8
Heynau<l 's Terre el ciel. With regard to this, Cassou: "On di llcovering his ea rthl y
destin)". man feels a 80rt of vertigo and callnot at ft rst rec:oncile himself to this
destiny alone. He must link it up to the grea test possible immensit y of tillle alld
space. Onl y in the cont ext of its m08t sweeping breadth will be intoxicate himself
with being, with movement, with progress. Onl y then can he in aU eonfldence and
ill all dignit y pronounce the sublime word8 of J ean Reynaud: ' I have long made a
practice of the universe. '" " We ftnd nothing in the universe tbat cannot serve to
elevate U8, and we are genuinely elevated onl y in taking advantage of what the
uni ver se offers. The sta rs themselves, in their sublime hi er archy, arc hut a series
of Stel)S hy whi ch we mount progressivel y toward infinit y." <Jean) Cassou, Quar­
llllte-huit <Pan s, 1939), pp. 49.48. (010,4]
Life wi thin the magic circle of etemal rerum makes for an existence that never
emerges from the auratic. (OlOa,l ]
As life becomes more subject to administrative nonns, people must learn to wait
more. Games of chance possess the great charm of freeing people from having to
wait. (Ol Oa,2]
The boulevardier (feuilletonist) has to wait, whereupon he really waits. Hugo' s
is life" applies firs t of all to him. (OIOa,3]
The essence of the mythica1 event is rerum. Inscribed as a hidden figure in such
events is the futility that furrows the brow of some of the heroic personages of
the underworld (Tantalus, Sisyphus, the Danaides). 'Thinking once again the
thought of etemal recurrence in the nineteenth century makes Nietzsche the
figure in whom a mythic fatality is realized anew. (The hell of eternal damnation
has perhaps impugned the ancient idea of etemal recurrence at its most formida­
ble point, substiruting an eternity of torments for the eternity of a cycle. )
(OlOa,4]
Tbe belief in progress-in an infinite perfectibility understood as an infinite
ethical task- and the representation of etemal rerum are complementary. They
are the indissoluble antinomies in the face of which the di al ectica1 conception of
historical time must be developed. In this conception, the idea of etenm.l return
appears precisely as that "shallow rationalism" which the belief in progress is
accused of being, willIe faith in progress seems no less to belong to the mythic
mode of thought than docs the idea of eternal return. [0 10a.5)
E
[Haussmannization, Barricade Fighting]
11l(: realm of dccoratioll.'l,
TIle chann of of architecture,
And alIl.hc effect of sttncry rest
Solely on the law of perspective.
- Franz Bohle, '(}uattT·CaltdtiJmlLl, fKkr "'lIlIoristisdlt ErAliiru"l INT­
Kili,t/mn- ufmiWidt im Biill1lmkbm iiblicMr Frmui-.diTt(T (Munkh),
p.74
I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and all things great ;
Beautiful nalUrc:, on which great an resLS-
How it cndlanUi the ear and channs the eye!
I Icrve spring in blossom: women and TO.'ICli.
-OJ,ywioll d'u" lion dC!Kflu lIilU;f (Baron Haussmann, 1888)
11l(: brtathless capitals
Opened thcll1Klves to the carolon.
-Pierre Dupont. u Claant da iludu,niJ (ParU, 1849)
The characteristic and, properly speaking, sole decoration of the Biedenncicr
room "was afforded by the curtains, which-extremdy refined and compounded
preferably from several fabrics of dilTerent colors- were furnished by the uphol.
sterer. For nearly a whole century aftenvard, interior decoration amoWlts, in
theory, to providing instructions to upholsterers for the tasteful arrangement of
draperies." Max von Bodm, Die Mode im X IX. Jahrhundert, vol. 2 (Munich,
1907), p. 130. TIUs is something like the interior's perspective on the window.
[EI, I]
cIJ a ractcr of Illc (Ti nolinc . ..... ith it ;; lIumi fo l.1 flOIlIl CC!!. A I leasl fi ve 10
pl'l linlll lS ","' rc wornllnJcrllcu lh. {El ,2]
r hctori(·. pt·r!l pt·ctivul figul't!fI of 51H:ech: "' Incidcnt all y. tile fi gu re of
,·ff,·d. cmployc.1 by all Frcnch om tor'S from Iheir pO(IiuIIl8 li nd t ri hunes,
!lolI' Hl s I'I'clly mil ch li kc ' T lIt'rl' wus in Ihc Mj.lJle Ages a hook which concen·
t raled the s pirit of thc l imcs as a mirror COll ccllt ratcs the rays of thc sun, a book
""hieh towered "I' in mll j t'l8l.ic glory 10 the heavell' like II primeval forest, a book in
whi ch ... a hook for .....!tich ... flll aUy, a hook whi ch ... by whicb a nd through
which [ the most IOllg. willdt.'tl spt..'Cifica lions foUow] ... a book ... a book ... this
book was the DilJjfle Comedy.' Lolld appla use." Karl Gutzkow, Brie/e aus Puris
(Lei pzig, 1842), vul. 2. Pl' · 151- 152. {EI .3)
Strategic basis for the perspectival articulation of the city. A contemporary seek.
ing to justify the construction of large thoroughfares under Napoleon III speaks
of them as "unfavorable 'to the habitua! tactic of local insurrection.''' Marcel
Poete, Ulle flie de a'ti (Paris, 1925), p. 469. "Open up this area of continual
disturbances." Baron Haussmann, in a memorandum calling for the extension of
the Boulevard de Strasbourg to Chatdet. Emile de Labedolliere, Ie Nouueau
Paro, p. 52. But even earlier than this: "They are paving Paris with wood in
order 10 deprive the Revolution of building materials. Out of wooden blocks
there will no more barricades constructed." Gutzkow, Brieft aUJ Paris, vol. I,
pp. 60-61. What this means can be gathered from the fact that in 1830 there
",etc 6,000 barricades. (E I,4]
" Ill Paris . .. they a re fl eeing the arcades, 80 long in fashion, as one flees st ale air.
The arcades a re d ying. From t ime to time, one of them is closed, like the !lid
Pa ssage Del orme, where, in the wilderness of the gaUer y, female figures of a t aw­
dry antiquit y used to dance along the shopfronts, as in the scenes from Pompeii
inter preted by Guerinon B enellt . The arcade thllt for the Paritian was a 80 rt of
salon-walk, where YOIl strolled and smoked and chatted, it now nothing more than
a species of refuge which you think of when it r ams. Some of the a rcades mamt ain
a cert ai n a ll racli on on account of t his or that famed esta blishment still to be found
there. But it is the tenant 's renown t hat prolongs the excit ement , or r ather the
dea th agon y, of Ihe plncc. The arcades have one grea t deft..'C1 for moder n Pari sians:
you could say that , just like certain paintings done from stifled perspectives,
t hey're in need of air. " Jllies Cla retie, La Vie aPa m, 1895 (Paris, 1896), pp. 47f('
[E I,5]
The radical transfonnation of Paris was carried out under Napoleon III mainly
along the axis ruruung through the Place de la Concorde and the H6td de V ille.
It may be that the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was a blessing for the architec.
lU.ra1 image of Paris, seeing that Napoleon III had intended to alter whole dis­
tnets of the city. Stahr thus writes, in 1857, that one had to make haste now to see
the old Paris, for "the new ruler, it seems, has a mind to leave but li ttle of it
slanding." (Adolf Stahr, MlChfii,y]ahrm, vol. 1 (Oldenburg, 1857), p. 36.)
[E I,O]
The stifled perspective is plush for the eyes. Plush is the material of the age of
Louis Philippe. DDusl and Rain D [E 1.7]
Regarding "stifled perspectives": " ' You can come t o the panoroma to do drawingll
fr om nat ure,' David told his students." Emil e de LahedoWer e, Le iVOll lJeO. U Porn
( Paris), p. 31. [£1,8]
Among the most impressive testimoni es to the age's unquenchable thirst for
perspectives is the perspective painted on the stage of the opera in the Musee
GrCvin. (This arrangement should be described.) [£1,9)
" Havi ng, as they do, the appearance of walling-in a massive eter nit y, Ha uu ­
manu' s urhan works a re a wholl y a ppropriate representation of the absolute gov­
erning princi ples of the Empire: repression of ever y indi vidual formation, every
or gani c self-development , ' fundamenta l hatred of all individualit y. ,,, J . J. Honeg_
ger, Grunm teine einer a llgemeinen Kulturgeschichte der nel«!lten Zeit , vol. 5
(Leipzig, 1874), p. 326. But Lou.i s PhiliPIJe was alread y known as the
<Mason King). [El a,I)
On the tra n8fonnati on of the cit y under Napoleon 11.1 : "The 8ubsoil hal heen
profoundl y disturbed by the inst all ation of gas mai ns and the construction of
sewers.... Never before in Pari s have so many buil<ling supplies been moved
about , so many bouses a nd a partment buildings constr ucted, so ma ny monumentll
restored or erected, so many dressed with cut stone .. . . It was ne<:e88ary
to act qu.i ckly aDd t o t ake ad vantage of properties acq ui red at a ,·er y high cost : a
double stimulus. In Paris, shall ow basement s ha ve t aken the place of deep cellars,
whi ch requi red excavat ions a fun story deep. The use of concrete and cement ,
whi ch was fi rst made possibl e by the di scoveries of Vica t , has contributed botb to
the reasonable cost and to the boldness of the&e sub81ructions." E. Levasseur.
fl istoire del clauel ouvr ;er el el de l'itl dwtrie en France de 1789 ii 1870, vol. 2
( Paris . 19(4), pp. 528-529. 0 Arcll des 0 [El a,2]
as we find it in the period foll owing the Revoluti un of 1848, was about to
become uninhabitabl e. Its popul ation had been greatly enla rged a nd unsettled by
the inceu ant activit)' of the railroad (whose rails extended further each day and
linketl up wi th those of neighboring countries) , and now t his popul at ion was suffo­
ca ting in the na rrow. t angled, putrid alleyways in whi ch it was forcibl y confined."
011 Camp, IJaru • vol. 6 <Paris, 1875), p. 253. [Ela,3)
Exprupriati ons uml er Ha Ulsmann. "Cert ain barrister"! made a slH!Cialt y of thi s
kind of ca se... . They defended rea l est ate expropriati ons. industrial expropr ia­
t ioll s, tcnant expropriati ons. sentiment al expropr iati on8; they spoke of a roof for
falhen! aud a cr adle for in fa nt s .... ' I-Iow did you make YOll r fortune? ' II par venu
....as asked : ' I',·e been expropriated .' ca me t.he response.... A new illliustr y was
crea ted, .... hich, on the pretext of t aki ng in hand til e int erests of the expropriated,
did not shrink from t he hu est fraud .... It sought uut sOl an manufactllrt!rs and
t.. "quippcd them with tl eluiled account houks. fal se invcnt ories, a llli fuke mercha n­
<lise that often Was nothi ng more t han logs wr apped in paper. It would even pro­
cure group8 of customers to fillt.he shop on t he day the j ury made their prescribed
"isit. It fabrica ted extended, anl cd ated--on shectll of old
paper bearing offi cial II ta mps, whi ch it had managed to procll re. It would ha ve
stores newl y repainted and ....ith improvised clerks, whom it paid three
fra nc8 a day. It was a sort of mid night gang t.hat rifl ed the till of the city govern­
ment. ·' 0 11 Camp, Pa ri&. vol. 6, pp. 255-256. [E18,4]
Engels' critique of harri cade t acti cs : " The most that the insurrection caD actuall y
impl ement ill the wily of t acti cal practice is the correct construction li nd defense of
a single harri cade." But "even in t he clau ic period of I t reet fi ghting, ... the
ba rri cade produced more of a moral t han a materi al effe<: t. It was a means of
shaking the steadfastness of the military. If it held on until this was attained , t hen
\'ict or y was WOII ; if not , there was defea t. " Friedri ch Engell, Introduction to Karl
Marx, Die Kllusenk iimpfe ira Frarakreicll , 18,UJ-- 1850 (Berlin, 1895) , pp. 13, 14. L
[El a,5)
. No less retrograde than the tactic of civil war was the ideology of class sttuggie.
Marx on the February Revolution: "In the ideas of the proletarians, ' .. who
confused the finance aristocracy with the bourgeoisie in general; in the imagina­
tion of good old republicans, who denied the very existence of classes or, at most,
admitted them as a result of the constirutional monarchy; in the hypocritical
phrases of the segments of the bourgeoisie up till now excluded from power-in
aU these, the rule 0/ Ihe bourgeoisie was abolished with the introduction of the
republic. All the royalists were transfonned intO republicans, and aU the million­
aires of Paris intO workers. The phrase which corresponded to this imagined
liquidation of class relations was fraim/iii." Karl Marx, Die KitJJJenAAmpje in
Frankreich (Berlin, 1895), p. 29.
2
(Ela,6]
I n a ma nifesto in whi ch he proclaims the r ight to wor k. Lama rtine speaks of
t he " ad vent of the industrial Christ." J ournal del I!!cotl omistel , 10 (1845), p. 212 . J
oIndust ry 0 [El a,7]
"The reconstruction of t.he cit y ... , hy obliging the workers to fmd 10dgiugII in
outl ying (lrro ndiuemetlts . has di ssolve!1 t he hOllds of neighho rhood t hat pre­
viously unit ed t hem ....it h the hourgeoisie." Levasseur, Ililloire del cl(l uel ou­
vrieres et (Ie l'indwt r ieen France, vol. 2 (Pa ri s, 19{)<h. p. 775. {E2, 1]
" Pa ris is 1II1I8t y allli dose." Louis Vcuill ot , l.el OrJeurl de P(l r is ( Pa ris.
1914),
p. 14 . [E2,21
)'arks, and public gardens fi n t installed ullli cr Na poleon III. Between
fort y a llli fift y were created . [E2,3)
in the faub(lurg Saint-Antoine: Boulevard Prince Eugene, 'Boule­
vanl Maza., IIml Boulevard Richard Lenoir. as strategic axef. [E2,4J
The heightened expression of the dull perspective is what you get in panoramas.
It signifies nothing to their detriment but only illuminates their style when Max
Brod writes: "Interiors of churches, or of palaces or art galleries, do not make for
beautiful panorama images. They come across as Bat, dead, obstructed." <Max.
Brod,) Vb« die Schiinheit ha.uli,h« Bilder (Leipzig, 1913), p. 63. An acrurnte
description, except that it is precisely in this way that the panoramas serve the
epoch's will to expression. 0 Dioramas 0 fE2 .5)
011 June 9, 1810, a t the Theatre de la Rue de Chartres, a play by Barre, Radet,
aud Desfontaines is given its first performance. Entitled Momieur Durelie!. ou Le.
EmbeUUsement. de Pari•• it presents a seri es of rapid scenes as in a revi ew, show­
ing the changes wrought iu Pa risia n life by Napoleon J. "An architect who i. the
bearer of one of those sigllificant names formerly in use on the st age, M. Durelief,
has fabricated a miniature Paris, which he illtellds t o exhibit. Having labored
thirt y yea rs on thi s project , he thinks he has fini shed it at lnst ; but suddenly a
'creative epirit ' aplHl ars, and proceeds to pmlle and sharpen the work, creating
the need for ince88ant corrections and addi tions:
Thi, vast and weahhy capital,
Adorned wilh his fine monument"
I \1;«1) Me II. cardboard model in my room,
And I follow t he embelli, hmenls.
But alway. lliud myself in arrears­
By m)' word, it ', desperate:
Even ill miniature, one cannot do
Whallhll. t man doe. full ·Kale.­
Tile play ends with an a potheosis of Mari e-Louise. whoSi: portrait the goddess of
the cit y of Pa ris holds , as her loveliest ornament , high above the head, of the
audience. Ci ted in Theodore Murel , L'Hutoire par k theatre, 1789- / 851 ( Paris,
1865). "01. I . pp. 253-254. (E2,6J
Use of omnibuses to build barricades. The horsee were unha rnessed , the passen­
gers were put (Iff, the vehicle was lll rlled over, and the fl ag was fastened t o an axle_
1'2,71
On the expropriatiulIs: " Before the war, there was talk of demolishing the Passage
1111 Cu ire ill ortl er t o pUI a circus on the sit e. TOIla y there's a shortage o(funds, and
the proprieton (all fort y-four of them) are hard to please, Let 's hope there's a
8110rtage of fUlI(l s for a long I.jllle to come amllile propriet or.!! become still harder to
pl calOc. The hil leous gap of the Bouleva nl l-I au8smalln at the corner of the Rue
Drouot. with all Ihe charming houses it has brought (1(I""n, should I;Olll elll u. for
Ihe momcnt :' Paul LCa ni aUlI. " Vieu" Parill," Mercure de "'rance (Oct oher 15,
1927). p. 503. (E2,8J
Haussmann ami the Chamber uf Deputie8: "Oll e day, in an exceu of lerror, Ihey
accused him of having created a desert in the very ccnt er (If Pa ri .!!! Thai de.!!crt wae
t.he Boulevard SCI,aslopol. ·' Le Corbu.!! ier, UrbcHl u me ( Pari.!! (1925), I)'
[[2,91
Very import ant : " Ha u.!!, manll 's ill Le Corbusicr. Ur­
bllnisme. p. 150.
s
Va rious shovels. pi cks . ",·heelharrows, and so on. (£2, IOJ
J Ill es Ferry, Comptes!ClII/(utiqlle. d 'H(I.lIlSmunn <Paris, 1868). Panlphlet direc::led
against Hau8smann's aut ocr ati c management of finances. (£2, 11]
" The aycnues [l:Iau88mallll] cut were entirel y arbi t.rary: Ihey ""ere not based 0 11
strict deducti ons of the sciellce of tOWII 1)lanliing. The measures he took were of a
financial a nd milita r y charact er. " Le Corbusier, Urbflni. me (Paris). p. 250.
(E2a, l ]
"... the impossibility of obtaining permission to photograph an adorable wax­
. work figure in the Musee Grevin, on the left, between the hall of modem political
celebrities and the hall at the rear of which, behind a curtain, is shown 'an
evening at the theater': it is a woman fastening her garter in the shadows, and is
the only statue I know of with eyes-the eyes of provocation." Andre Breton,
Nadja (Paris, 1928), pp. 199-200.
7
Very striking fusion of the motif of fashion
with that of perspective. 0 Fashion 0 [E2a,2J
To the characterization of this suffocating world of plush belongs the description
of the role of Bowers in interiors. After the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, an
attempt was made at first to return to rococo. But this was hardly feasible.
European situation after the Restoration was the following: "Typically, Cor:n­
thian columns arc: used almost everywhere. . . . This pomp has something
oppressive about it, just as the restless bustle accompanying the city's tranS­
formation robs natives and foreigners alike of hoth breathing space and space for
reBection.... Every stone bears the mark of despotic power, and all the ostenta­
tion makes the atmosphere, in the litera1 sense of the ",'Oros, heavy and close ....
One grows dizzy with this novel display; one chokes and anxiously gasps for
Dreath. The feverish haste with which the work of several centuries is accom­
plished in a decade weighs on the senses." Die Grem.bolenJournal of politics and
literature 1861), semester 2, vol. 3, pp. 143- 144 ("Die Pamer Kunst·
ausstellung von 1861 und di e bildende Kunst des 19 .... Jahrhunderts Frank­
reich"). The author probably Julius Meyer. l"b.ese remarks are allned at
HaUSSmaJUl . 0 Plush 0 (£2a.3J
Remarkable propensity for structures that convey and COlUlect-as, of course,
the arcades do. And this cOlUlccting or mediating function has a literal and spatial
as well as a figurative and stylistic tx:aring. One thinks, above all, of the way the
Louvre links up with the Tuileries. "111e imperial govenmlent has built practi­
cally no new independent buildings, aside from barracks. But, then, it has been
all the more zealous in compl eting the lxudy begun and half·finished works of
previous cenruries .... At first sight, it seems strange that lhe govemment has
made it its business to preserve existing monuments.... The government, how.
ever, docs not aim to pass over the people like a stonn; it wants to engrave itself
lastingly in their existence .... Let the old houses collapse, so long as the old
monuments remain." Die Grenzhott1J (1861), semester 2, vol. 3, pp. 139-141
("Die Pariser Kunstausstellung von 1861 "). 0 Dream House D [E2a,4]
ConneCli on of the railroads 10 Haussnu.lnn's projt!CIS. From a memorandum by
II l1 ullllma nn: ""The railway slations are t!Hlay the principa l entryways into Paris.
To put Ihem in communica tion with the cit y centcr by mealls of large a rteri es is a
IWI:C!ssity of the fi rsl order. " E. de Labedolliere , lli$loire tlu 'IOU Ileall Ptlri.s. I). 32.
This appli es in pa rticular 10 the so-caUl ..d Boulevard du Centre: the extenliion of
tilt: Boule\'ar<1 de Strashourg ItJ Chi t elel by what is loday the Boulevard Sebas­
lopol. [E2a,5]
,Ol>cninguflhe Boulevard Sebali lopollike the ullveiling of a monument . "At 2:30 in
Ihe IIflC! rnOOn, at Ihe lIIoment Ihe [impcri al] procession was IIpproaching from the
Bouleva rd Saint -Dcnis, an immense scrim, whi ch had masked the entrance to the
Boule\'ard de SebaslollOl frOIll this side, was dra....n like a curtain. Thi.ll drapery
had been hung lH! twcen two Moorish columns, on the pe(lestals of which were
fi gures rcprcsenting the arts, the sciences, industry, and commerce." Labedol­
f1islQire du IIQ1Weflll Paris , p. 32. [E2a,6]
Hausslll;um's predilection for perspectives, for long open vistas, represents an
attempt to dictate art fonns to technology (the technology of city plaruting). nus
ahvays results in kitsch. [E2a,7]
lI a tl ss nl a un on himself: " Born in Paris, in the old .' auhonrg du Roule, whi ch is
joilwd II OW 10 the Fa ubourg Saint - Holl ore at the I)oint where the Boulevard
II lI lI sil ln;ulII ends ami the Aveline de .' riedland hegins; student at the College
1I t' lI r i IV :11111 the oM LycCe Na poleon, which is situated 011 the Montagne Sainte­
CI· llc\Oii·\'t· . where I lalt' r studie<1 al the law school a nd. at odd 1II0ment s, at the
Suduolll w ululthe College de France. I took walks, morcover, through all parts of
Ilw d l y. alltl J was oft en absorl wtl , during my youth. in protracled contemplation
uf a lIl ap uf Ihis many-sitl ed a lIl a p whi ch re\'ealed 10 me weaknesseli in the
Iwt wol·k uf ,,!lhlie I Despite Ill y long reij itl cnce in Ilrc provincC!s ( no less
t h:tI\ IWI· nl y-t"'·o years!). I ha"c managetl 10 reta in my lIlC! moricii and impressioll s
uf for mCI' times. so thai . wlr ell J was il udtl C! lIl y called UpOII . sOllie days ago. 10 direct
III!' Irlll1 sful'llI ati on uf II II' Capil al of III C Empire (ovet· whi ch lire Tuileries alld Ci l y
11 :111 l' urn'lIt ly :11 luggcl'hell lls). I fell myself, in fact, lietter prepared than olle
mi glll hll\'l' supposcd hI fulfill this complex mission, alld ready, in any case. to
(' lIl er buldly inlo li te IICIIl't of li te pruhl(·lIIs 11.1 lie re80Ivc{I. " Mcmoircs du Haroll
1If1f1ssI//(///JI . \'1.11. 2 ( Pllris, 1890), 1'1" 34-35. DClllull81rale.ll ver y how it is
often di sta nce a loll c thai , inl ervening bet weell 1'11111 a nd work. ena ble! the pl an to
be realized. [E3, l ]
How Baron i:laussma nn advllnced upon Ihe drea m ci t y thai Pa ris 81.ill was in 1860.
From a ll a rticle of 1882: "There wcre hill s in ['aris, evcn Ull the UOlllm'ard8....
We lacked wal er, markets. li glll in those remote times-scarccl y thirl y yea rs ago.
Some ga8 j ets had begun to aplJCar-lhat is all . We lacketl Churcilt.'8, 100, A nUIII­
ber of the more IIncient oncs. including the mOdt lieautiful , were ser ving a8 st ores,
bllrrllcks, or offlccs. The othcrs were wholly concealed by a growth of tumbl edown
ho\·els. Stm, the Railroads exisled; each day in Parili they di scilargetl torrent s of
tra\'el ers who could neither lodge in our houses 1I0r r01l1ll through oll r torluouli
slreets. I . .. He [1IIIussmllllll] demo li sli ed some (11I<lrtier8--olle mi ght say, entire
tOWII S. There were eri e8 that he would bring on Ihe pl ague; he toler ated .II uch
out cries and gave us inslead- through hili well -collsidered a rchitectural break­
Ihroughs--air, health, and Life. Sometimes it was a Streel that he created, .IIome­
limes an Avenue or Bouleva rd; sometimes it was a Square, II Public Garden, a
IJromenade. He e.ll tll liLished Hospit a ls, School s, Campuses. He ga ve us a whole
ri ,'er. !-Ie dug magnificent 8ewers. " fttemoire$ tll/Haron HUllumwlll , vol. 2 (Paris,
1890), pp. x, ri oExtracts from an article by Jul e8 SimOIl ill Le Gaillois. May 1882.
The nUlller:ous capit al letters a ppear to be a charact eristi c orthogra phic interven­
tion by Hau8smanll . (£3,2]
From a conversation, later on, between Na poleon III alld Haussmann. Napoleon:
-' How r ight you are to maint ain thai the People of France, who li re generall y
thought so fickl e, are at bOIl OIll the most routinc people ill the world! " " Ye8, Sire,
though I would add: with regard to things! ... I myself am charged wilh the
doubl e offense of having undul y diSlurhed the Population of Pari li by boulever­
sanl , by ' boul evardi7.ing,' almost aLI the quartiers of the cit y. and of having al­
lowed it 10 keeplhe u me "rome in the same setting for too long." Memoire8 du
Haron Ha w smann, vol. 2 ( Pa ri s. 1890), 18-19, <Compare (£3,3]
FrOIll a di scussion between Napoleon III and HauSSlllann 011 the lalt er's assuming
hi s duti es in Pa rill. Hauu mann: " I would add thai , although Ihe FH>pul atioll of
Pa ris as a whol e was liympatheti c to the plans for the tra nsformati on--or, as it wll8
call ed then, Ihe 'emhelLi sluuent '--of the Capit ll l of the Empire. the gr eater pal'l of
the liourgeoisie and alm051 all Ihe a ristocracy were hostil e:' ",III)' Ihough?
Memoire$ flu B(lrOIi H(lUu rtltllln, vol. 2 ( Paris, 1890), p. 52. {E3.4]
" 1 left Munidl 011 t.he sixth of Februar y. spelll len Ila ys ill IIrchil'e8 ill northerll
h aly, and a rri\'cd ill HOlli e limi er a pouring rain. i found Ihe l1 utt SSmlt llllizat ioll of
Ill e cit y wellllli vancell. " Bri('f e 11011 Fenlilll/1l(/ rm tlell S/(lIIl ssekreliir
I-Ierm(lntl von 1'1,iie . cd. Il ermll lln "on 1894), p. 110.
[E3 .5J
Nicknalll e for l-I a ll 8slllanll : " I'a8ha Oll lll a n. " He himself Ill ukes the commenl , wil h
reference to hill IITOVidillg the cily with spring wal er : " I mUlit build myself all
aqlll.llluct." Another hon mot : " My t.itl cs?
I have been luuned arti st-dcmoli­
lioni st. .•
(E3,6(
" In 1864. Ildcnding the arhitrary cha racter of the city's government . [ lIau88­
m81111JIHlopl ed a tone of rare boldness. ' ''' or its inhabitants, 11aris is either a great
marketpl ace of consumption. a giant st ockyard of labor, a n arena of ambiti ons, or
simply a rentl CillvoUS of pleasures. It is not their home ... .' Then the st atement
tha t polemicists wi U a tt ach to his reputation like a stone: ' If there are a great many
who come t o find an honorable situati on in the city, ... there are also others,
\'erit able nomads in the midst of Parisian society, who are absolutely destitut e of
municipal lIentimcnt .' And, recalling that ever ything-railroads, administrative
networks, brunches of national leads to Paris, he concluded :
' It is thus not surprisiug that in France, country of aggregati on and of order, the
Cal)i tal almost always has heen pl aced, ",ith regard to its communal organinti on ,
. ,., G La
tlllt
I
er an emergency regi me. COr ges ronze, Le Baron Ilauumann (Paris,
1932), pp. 172- 173. Speech of November 28, 1864. (E3a,l ]
Political ca rtoons represent ed " Pa ri s as bounded by the wharves of the English
Cha nnel and those ufthe south of France, by the highways of the Rhine vaUey and
of Spain; or, according t o Cham, a8 the cit y which gets for Christmas the houses in
the suburhs! ... One ca ricature shows the Rue de Rivoli stretching to the hori­
zon." Gt."Orges Larorl ze.l...e Baron lIau.nmann (Paris, 1932) , Pl' . 148-149.
(E3.,,]
,
" New arteries ... woulcllink the center of Paris with the railroad stations, reduc­
ing congestion in the latt er. Othen would take part in the battle against povert y
a nd revoluti on; they would be stra tegic rout es, breaking through the sources of
contagion and the cenl el"ll of unrest , a nd lH!rmiUing, with the inOu,; of beuer air,
the arriva l of an armed force, hence connecting, like the Rue de Tur bigo, the
!O\'ernment wit h the barracks. and, like the Bou1evard du Prince-Eugene, the
ba rracks with the suburbs." Georges Laronze, Le Baron Haun mann, PI" 137­
1m.
" An indcpendent deput y, the comt e de Durfort-Civrac, ... objected that these
lI ew houlevartls. whi ch were supposed to aid ill repressing disturbances, would
mllke thcm more likel y heca use, in order to construct them, it was neceasary
to as!;cmhl e n muss of wOI'kers.'· Gcorges Larollze, Le l1aron J/cmnmflml, p. 133.
[E3a,4)
c.·lchrnt e>! til e birlhday--or name Ila y (April 5)?--of Napoleoll III .
" Hunning the leugt h of the Chumps-Elysees, from tim Pl ace de 11.1 Conconle to the
": t oil c. then' was a 8Cll llolH!d border of 12·1 sculpt ed arcades reposing on a tl ouhl e
row of columns. · It is a reminiSl"ence; Le Corutitllfion1lel sought to expl ai n, ' of
Cordova a nti t.he Alhamhra.· ... T he visual effect was thus very striking, with the
swirling of the fift y.six great streetlights alollg the avenue, the reOecti ons
from the surfaces helow, and the fli ckering of flames (rom Ihe five hundred thou­
sand j ets of gas. " Geor ges IAt 1101"011 Ilall-umlUlrl , p. 119. 0 F1ii neur 0
[E3a,5)
On Uaussmann: " Paris now ccasetl forever to be a conglomerati on of small towns.
each "'ith its distinctive physiogllomy and way of life--where one was horn and
where one died, where one ne\'er dreamed of leaving home, and where nature a nd
hi stor y had collaborated to realize variety in unit y. The centralization, the mega­
lomania , cr eated an a rtifi cial cit y, in whi ch the Parisian (and this is the crucial
point ) no longer feels at home; and so, a8 800n as he can, lI e leaves. And thus a new
need arises: the craving for holidays in the country. On the other hand, in the city
deserted by itll inhabitant.s, t he foreigner arrives on a specified date--the start of
' the season.' The Parisian, in hi B own lown, whi ch has become a cosmopolitan
crossroads, now seems like one deracinated." Lucien Dubech and Pierre
d' Espezel , <Hu toire de Paru (Pa ris, 1926),) PI' . 427-428. [E3a,6]
"1\.10st of the time, it was necessa r y to resort t o a jury of expropriations. Its mem­
bers , cavilers from birth, adver sari es on principle, showed themselves generous
with funds whi.ch, as they supposed , cost them nothing and from which each was
hoping one day to benefit . In a single session where the cit y might offer a million
and a haU, the jury would dema nd from it near ly three million. The beautiful field
of speculation! Who wouldn' t want t o do his part? There were barrister s specializ­
ing in the mailer ; there were agencies guara nt eeing (in return for a commission) a
seri ous profi t; there were operati ons for simulating a lease or a commercial trans­
acti on, and for doctoring account books." Georges Laronze, Le Baron Haws­
mann (Paris , 1932), pp. 190-191. [E4, I)
From the Lamentationl raised against Ha uasmann: " You will live to see the city
grown desolate and bleak. I Your glory will be great in the eyes of future archae­
ologists. but your last days will be sud and biller. I . .. I Anti the heart of the city
will slowl y freeze. I ... , Lizards. stray dogs. and rat s will rul e over thi s mag·
nificence. The injuries infli cted by I.ime will accumul ate on the gold of the balco­
nies, and on the painted murals. I .... I And lonelineas, the tedious goddess of
desertll, ",ill come and seltle upon this new empire you will have made for her by so
formidable a labor." Pori.! ciesert : I..{mlelltat ion.! cl 'un }eremic hawlmannue
« Paris, 18(8), PI' . 7-8). [£4,2)
"The problem of the emhell ishment---(l r. more precisely. of til e r cgencration--(Jf
Paris arose ahoul 1852. Until then. it Il ad bt.'Cn possible t o leave thi s great cilY in
ils stat e of dilapidation. but no",' it bCi:ame lI eeeasa ry to dea l with the matt er. This
was because, by a forluitous coincidell ce, Frallce and the countries around it were
eonlpleting the constructi on of t hose long lines of r ailroad tracks which cri sscross
Europe." Pa ril 1IouIJcaujuse I)ar Imjlancllr (Paris, 18(8). p. 8. [E4.3]
"' I read, in a book whi ch enjoyed great sll cceu last yea r, thai the streets of Paris
had heen enlarged to permit ideas 10 circul ate and, above all, regiments to pan.
Thi s mali cious atalement (whi ch comes in the wake of othera) ia the ccluivalent of
aayi ng t hai Paria haa been stralegicall y embellished. WeU, so be it .... I do nol
hesit ate to procluim that strll. legic emhelli.s hments are the moSI admirahle of em­
bellishments." Puru nOUlleau j uge par Imjlii neur (Paris, 1868). pp. 21- 22.
[£4,41
"They say that the city of Paris has condemned itself to forced la bor, in the lIeDse
Ihat, if it ever ceast:d its various const ructi OIl projects and forced ils numerous
workers to return to their re.spective provinces, from that day forwa rd its toU
revenues would di rninillh consider ably. " Paris nouveau juge par 1m jlaneur
(Paris, 1868), p. 23. [E4,5]
Proposal to link t he right to vote for the Pari s mUll icipal council to proof of at least
fifteen months' resideDce ill the ci t y. Part of the reasoning: " If you examine t he
mailer closely, you will soon realize that it is precisely during t he agi tated, adven­
turous, and turbulent I)eriod of hi s existence. that a man residell in Pa ri s."
"(lris nouveau juse pur "njWneur, p. 33. [£.4,6]
" It is understood that the follies of the cit y promote reason of state." Jules Ferry,
Comptesjant(lstiqlleJl d 'IIClIlu nwnn (Paris, (868), p. 6. [FA ,7]
"The cODceuions. worth hundreds of milli ons. are uPl)Orti oned sub rosa. The
pri nciple of public adjudi cation is set aside, as is that of cooper ation." Ferr y,
CompleJlfimtUJl liqlU!s. p. II. [E4a, l]
Ferry analyzes (pp'. 21- 23 of his ComptesjantastiqueJl) the j udgments rendered in
caseli of expropri ation- j udgments whi ch, in the course of Hall u mann' s pr ojects.
took on a tendency unfavorable to the cit y. FoUowill g a decr ee of December 27,
1858--whi ch Ferry r egards as merely the normalizati on of an aDcient right , but
which Hauu mann regardll 88 the establishment of a n e ~ ' ri gllt-the ci t y was de­
ni ed the possibilit y of expropriating in their entir et y propt!rtiea which lay in the
way of the new arter ies. The expropriati on was limited to those por tions immedi­
alely rC(luiroo for t he const r ucti on of the st noets. In this way, the cit y lost out on
the profits it had hoped to make from the sale of remaining plOIS of land, whollC
value was dri ven up by the constructi on. [E4a,2]
From Haussmann's memorandum of December 11 , 1867: "There is a deep-r ooted
and long-standing convicti on that the last two method& of acqui si ti on di d not by
II. lI y mea llS aut omati caUy terminate t he tenant s' occupancy. But the Court of Ap­
pt!als has ruled, in va ri ous decisions spanuing the pt!riod 1861- 1865, that , vis-a­
vis t he ci t y, t he jUIlgment re«(uiring the conllelll of the seller. taken together with
the pr ivate contract . has the effect ipJlo jure of dissolving the lease of the tenants.
All II conSCCluence. many of Ihe tenants doing busi ness in hOIl st:s aC(luh-ed for
t he cit y by mutual agreemell t ... have acted to annllilheir leases before the date
of expropriat ion and have de.manded to be immediately evicted and compen­
sated.... The city ... has had to pay enormous, unforeseen indemniti es. It Cited
ill Ferry. Comptcsjall t6stillues, p. 24. (E4a,3]
'· I...ollis-Nal)Oleon Bonaparte felt his vocati on to be Ihe securi ng of the ' bourgeois
order .' ... hl(lustry and trade, the affairs of the bourgcoisie, were to prosper. An
imlll cnse number of concessions were gi ven out to the railroads ; public subven­
tions were grant etl; credi t was orga nized. The wealth and luxury of t he bourgeois
world increased. The 1850.1 saw the ... begl nllillg8 of the Par isian department
stores: Au Bon Marche, Au Louvre. La Bell e Jardi ni ere. The turnover at Au BOD
Marche-which, ill 1852, was onl y 450,000 francs-rose, hy 1869, to 21 milli on."
Gisela Freund, " Entwicklung del" Photographi e in Frankreich" [ manuscript] .'
[£4.,41
Around 1830: "The Rue Suint-Denis and Rue Saint-Martin are the principal ar­
teries in t his quartier, a godsend for rioters. The wa r for the streets was deplorably
easy there. The rebels had onl y to ri p up t he pavement and then pile up various
objC4:ts: fur niture from neighboring houses, crates from the grocer ' •• and, if Deed
be, a passing omnibus, whi ch they woul d 8tOp. gall antl y helping t he ladi es to
di sembark. In order to gaillthese Thermopylaes, it was t hull necessar y to demolish
the houses. The line infant ry would advance int o the OpeD, heavil y armed and well
equi pped . A handrul of ill 8urgents behind a barricade could hold an entire regi­
ment at bay." Dubeeh and d'Espezel, Histoire de Pa ru (Paris, 1926), pp. 365-366.
[£4.,51
Under Louis Phili ppe: " In the int erior of the cit y, the governing idea seems to have
been to rearrange t he st rategic lines that played 110 import ant a r ole in the rulitOri c
days of Jul y: the line of the quays, the line of the boul evards.... Finally, at the
center, t he Rue de Rambut eau , gr andsire of the Raussmanni zed thoroughfares: it
present ed. at Les Hailes , in the Marais, II breadth that seemed considerable
then- thirteen meters." Dubeeh and d' Esllezel, Hu toire de Paru (Pari s, 1926),
pp.382-383. [E5,11
Sailll-Simoni ans: " During the choler a epidemic of 1832. they caned for the demo­
li tion of crowded. closely built nei&hborhoods. wruch was excelleDt . But they de­
nl a,;ded that Louill Phili ppe and Larayett e set the pace with shovel and pickaxe;
t he wor kers were supposed 10 work under the directi on of uniformed Polytechni­
cians, amI to t he 1I0und of military music; the most beautiful women in Paris were
to come anl l offer their encouragement ." Dubech and d' Espezel, Hu lOire de Pa ris,
I' p. 392-393. 0 Indust ri al Developmeut 0 Secret Societies 0 [E5,2]
"All efforU notwithstanding, the newl y constructed buildi ngs did not slIffi ce to
aceonmlOdate t he expropr iated. The result was a grave crisis in rents : they dou­
li led. In IB5 I. the ()Opulation was 1,053,000; after t he annexatioll in 1866, it
increase{1 to more than 1,825,000. AI the end of the Second Empire, Paris had
60.000 houst:s and 612,000 al)artme.nts. of which 481.000 were r ent ed for lelll than
500 franct. Buildinge grew taUer, but ceilinge became lower. Til e government had
" If we had to define, in a word, the new spirit that was coming 10 preside over the
to pa811 II law J"e(lui rillg a minimum cei ling height of 2 meten 60 centimeters."
tra nsformatioll of Paris, we would have t o call it megalomani a. The empe ror allli
Duhech and d' Espezd, PI' . 420-421 .
{ES
t
3)
Ius Ilrefect ai m to make Paris the capit al not olil y of France but of til e world .
Cosmopolit an Pllris will be the resuh ." Dubccll and d' Espezel , p. 41)t1 . [E5a,2j
"Scanda lous fortunes ",·ere amassed by those inille prefect's inner circle. A legend
altrihut es to Madame Ha Ullllnumn a naive remark in a talon:
"Three facts will dominate the project t o trallli form Paris: a strat el,';c fact that ' It is curious that
every time we buy a houlre, II boulevard pusses through it. , .. Dubech and
demands, at the ci lY's cent er, the break-up of the ancient capital and a lI ew ar­
d' Espezel , p. 423.
[E5,4j
rangement of the hub of Paris; a natural fact , the push westwa rd; and a fact
entail ed hy the systemati c megaloma ni a of the idea of annexi ng the suburbs. "
Dube<: h and d'Espezel , p. 406.
"At the end of his wide avenues, Haussmann constructs-for the sake of perspec­
[E5a,3)
tive--var ious monumen18: a Tribunal of Comlllerce al Ihe end of the Boulevard
Sebastopol, and bastard churches in all st yles, such as Saint-Augustin (where
Jul es Ferry, opponent of Haun mann, a l the news of the surrender at Sedan: "The
Ballard copies Byn ntine structures), a new Saint-Ambroise, and
armi es of the emperor a re defeated! " Cited in Duhech and d' Espezel , p. 430.
Xavier. At the end of the Chaussee d 'Antin, the Church of La Trinite imitates the
[£5a,4)
Renaissance style. Sa int e-Clotilde imitates the Cothic style, while Saint-Jean de
"Until Haussmalln, Paris had been a ci t y of moder ate dimensions, where it was Belleville. Saint-Ma rcel , Saint -Bernard, and Saint-Eugene are all prooucts of irOn
const ruction and the hideous embrasures of false Cothic.... Though Hau8Snl ann
logical to let experience rule; it developed according to pressures dictated by na­
ture, accordi ng to laws inscribed in the facu of hist ory alld in the face of the had some good ideas, he realized them badly. He depended hellvil y on perspee­
lalldscape. Brusquel y, Haussmann acceler ates and crowns the work of revoluti on­ tives, for exampl e, and t ook ca re to Jlllt monument s at the end of hi s re<: tilinear
ary and imperial centralization.... An artifi cial and inordinate creation, stree18. T he idea was excell ent , but ",·hat awkwardneu in the execution! The
emerged like !'tUncrva frolll the head of Jupiter, born amid the abuse of the spirit of Boulevard de Strasbourg franles the enormous Right of stel's at the Tribunal of
Commerce, and the Avenue de l' Opera providcs a vi sta of the porter 's lodge at the
authorit y, this work had need of the spirit of authority in order to develop accord­
Louvre." Duhech and d' Espezel, Pl' . 416, 425.
ing to its own logic. No sooner was it bo rn, than it was Cllt off at the source....
[E5,5)
Here was the paradoxical speetacle of a construction artifi cial in prillci ple but
abandoned ill fact onl y to rules imposed by nat ure." Dubech and d ' Espezel ,
"Above all, the Paris of the Second Empire is cruelly lacking in beauty. Not one of
pp.443-444.
these great straight a venues has the charm of the magnificent curve of the Rue
{ESa,5)
Saint-Antoine, and no hOllse of thi s peri od affords anything like the tender de­
" lI aussmann cut immense gaps right through Paris, and carried out the most
light s of an eighteenth-century with its rigorous and graceful orders. Fi­
startl ing operations. It seemed as if Pa ris would never endure hi s surgical experi ­
nall y, thi s i110gical cit y is structllrall y weak. Already the architects are saying that
ments. And yet , today, docs it not exist merel y as a consclluence of his daring and
the O,.era is cracked, that La Trinite is crumbling, and that Saint-Augustin is
courage? Hi s equipment was meager ; the sho\'e1 , the pick, the wagoll , the trowel ,
brittle." Dubech a nd d'Espezel , p. 427.
[E5,6)
til e wheelba rrow- the simple tools of every race ... before the mcchani cal age.
His achievement was trul y admirable." Le Curbusier, UrbtwiSlll c (Pnris d 925» ,
" In Haussmann's time, there was a need for new roads, but not necessaril y for the
p. 149.'
[ESa,6)
lI ew roads he built .... The 1II0St striking feature of his projects is their scorn for
historical eXIW!ri ence .... Haussmann lays Ollt an artifi cial ci t y, like sOlllethilig in
The mighty seek to secure their position with blood (police), with cunning (fash­
Canada or the .' a r West .... His thoroughfares ra rely possess any utility and
ion), with magic (pomp).
[ESa,7)
nevcr an y beallt y. Mon a re astollishing arehitectural intrusiolls that begin just
ahout a nywhere and end up nowhere, whilc dcstroying evcr ything in their path; to
Thc widenill g of the streets, it was said, was necessitatt..'<1by t he crinoli ne. [E5a,S)
cun'e them would have been enough t o prt:servc precious old buildings.... We
must not accuse him of t oo much Haussma nni zation, but of too little. In spite of
Manlier of life II 111 0ng the masons, ""ho often came from Marche or Limousin. (The
the megalomania of hi s theorics, his vision was, in practi ce, 1I0t la rge enough.
description dates from 1851- before the great influx of this social st ratum in the
Nowhere did he anti cipat e til e future. II.is vist as lack amplitude; hi s strects are too
wake of HalissmaJln' 8 works.) " The masons, whose way of life is lIIore distinct than
narrow. Ilis clJll ccption is grandi ose but not graml; lIeither is it just or provi dcnt. "
that of other emigrant s, belong ordinarily to famili es of smu.1l farmcr-llUuscholdcrs
Dubech li nd d'Espezd, PI' . 424-426.
. [E5a, 11
est ablished ill the rural t owlIshil)S and providt..-d wi th individual paSlurage, all ow­
Tools used by Haussmann's workers. Artist unknown. Set: £5a,6.
ing for the mai ntenance of at least one dairy cow per famil y .... During hie 80­
j ourn in Paris , the mason lives with aU the economy that is consistent with an
unmarri ed situation; his provisionl ... come to approximately thirty-eight franc.
a month; hil lodgings ... cost only eight franci a month. Worken of the .ame
profession ordinarily Ihare a room, where they sleep two by two. TWI chamber iI
barely heated ; it is lit by means of a tallow candle, which the lodgers take turnl in
buying .... Havillg r eached the age of the mal on ... henceforth re­
mains on his property to culti vate it himself .... This way of life fonns a marked
contral t to that of the sedent ar y 1)OIlui ati oni neverthelell, after lome yean, it
tendl visibl y to alter.. .. Thus, durinA his stay in Paril, the mason showl
himself more willinA than before to contract illegitimate unionl, to spend money on
clothing. and to frequent various gatheri ng places and placel of pleasure. AI he
becomes len capable of elevating Ilimllelf to the condition of prov.rielor, he finds
hi.m8elf more susceptible to feelinga of jeaJoulY toward the upper classes of toeiety.
Thil depravit y, to whi ch he succumbs far from the influence of his family, ... and
in whi ch the love of gain develops without the counterweight of reUgioul aentiment ,
leads lometimel to the 10rt of coaraenel8 found ... among the sedentary workers
of Paril ." F. Le Play, Les Ouvrier. europeefU (Parie. 1855). p. 277. [£6,1)
On the politics of finance under Napoleon Ill: "The financial policy of the Empire
has been consistently guided by two main concerns: to compensate for the
suffi ciency of normal revenue. and to multiply the con. truction projecu that keep
capital moving and provide job•. The trick W81 to borrow without opening the
ledger and to undertake a great number of works without immediately overloading
the budget .... Thus, in the Ipace of l eventeen years, the imperial government ha,
had to procure for itself, in addition to the natural productl of taxation, a 8um of
four billion three hundred twent y- two million francs. With the gathering of this
enormous 8ubsidy, whether by direct loans (on which it was necel8ary to pay
interest) or by putting to work available capital (on which revenues were lost).
there has re. u1ted from these operatione an increase of debu and
liabilities for the state." Andre Cochut, OperatiofU et tendances jinancieres du
Second Empire (Paris, 1868), pp. 13,20-21. [£6,2)
Already at the time of the June Insurrection, "they broke through walls 80 as to be
able to pall from one house to another. " Sigmund Englander, Geschic:hte der
!ramosilchenArbeite"..Auocwtionen (Hamburg, 1864), vol. 2, p. 287. [E6,3)
"In 1852, ... being a Bonapartist opened up all the pleasures in the world. It was
tbese people who, humanly speaking, were the most avid for life; therefore. they
conquered . Zola was agitated and amazed at this tbought; suddenly, here was the
formula for those men who, each in hie own way and from his own vantage point,
had founded an empire. Speculation (chief of tbe vital functions of this empire),
unbridJed self-enricbment , pleall ure !leeking-all three were glorified theatrically
in exhibition. and festivals , whi ch by degrees took on the aspect of a Babylon. And
along with these brilliant malles taking part in the apotheosis, close behind
them, ... the obscure malleI who were awaking and moving to the forefront ."
Heinrich Mann. Ceil t und Tat (Berlin, 1931). p. 167 ("Zola"). [E6a,l)
Around 1837, Dupin, in the Calerie Colbert, issued a seri es of colored lithographs
(signed Pruche <?>, 1837) representing the theatergoing public in variou. postures.
A few plates in the seri es: Spectator. in High Spirits . Spectators Applaudiry;.
Spectator. Intrigu.ing, Spectator. Accompanying the Orchelfra. Attentive
. tator •• Weeping Spectator.. [£6a,2)
Begi nnings of city planning in Soisse!'s Discourl con Ire leI servirude. publiques
<Discourse against Public Easements> of 1786: "Since the natural comnlunity of
goods has been broken up and dil tributed. every indi vi dual propert y owner has
built as he pleases. In the past , the locial order would not have suffer ed from this
trend. liut now t hat urli an constructi on proceeds at the entire discreti on, and 10
till!: entire advant age, of the owners, t1l ere is no longer any consideration at all for
the securit y. healdl , or comfort of societ y. Tllis is parti cul arl y the case in Par is,
wher e churches and palaces , lioulevards and walkwaYII are built in abundance,
while houll ill g for the great maj orit y of inhabitants is relegated to t he slul dows.
Boinel descr ihes in gra phic detail the ruth and perill that threaten the poor pedell·
triall 0 11 the II treelll of Paril .... To this miserable arrangemcllt of It reell he now
turns his attention, and he l ol ves the prohlem by propol ing to Irans·
form the fl oors of houses into airy ar cades, whi ch would offer
from the vehicldl and the weather. He thus antici patel Bellamy's idea of ' one
umbrell a over all heads. "'10 C. Hugo. ""Der SO"llialismus in Frankreich wii hrend
der grossen Revolution," part I , Boilisel," Die neue Zeit, II , no. 1
(Stuttgart . 1893), p. 813. (E6a,3)
On NalwleQn III around 1851: " Ue is a socialist with Proudhon, a reformer with
Gir ardin, a reacti onary with Thiers. a moder ate r epublica n with the SUPl)Orters of
the republic, and an enemy of democracy and r evolution with the legi timists. He
promi ses everything and subscribes to everything." Friedrich Szarvady, Pam,
vol. I {the onl y volume 10 appear] (Berlin, (852), p. 401. (E6a,4)
" Louis Nalwleon, ... thi s represent ative of the lumpenproletari at and of every
t ype of fraud alld knavery. slowl y draws ... all power to himself .... With gl ad
elan, Daumier reemerges. fi e creates the brilliant figure of Ratapoil, an audacioul
pimp and charl atan, And lhili ragged marauder, with hi s murderous cudgel for­
ever concealed behind his back, bet:omeli for Daumier the embodiment of the
downfall en Bonapartist idea." Frit"ll Th. Schulte, " Honore Daumier," Die neue
Zeit, 32, no. I (Stutt gart <1913-1914» , p. 835. (E1,1)
With reference to the tranliformati on of the city: " Nothing len than a COmpa88 is
required , if you are to find your way. " J acques Fabien, Ptl ru en !onge (Paril ,
\ 863), p. 7. [E?,2)
The foll owing remark, by way of contrast , throws an int eresting light on Pari s:
" Where money. industry, and riches are prelient , there are the houses
have assumed faceli t hat serve to indi cate the differenccs in claSli. III London, more
than the di stall ces are pitilessly marktl(1. ... A proliferation of ledges,
bow windowli, corni ces, column!l--8o many columns! The colullln is nobilit y."
Fernand Uger, " Londres," LII , 5. no. 23 (June 7, 1935), 1' . 18. (E7,3)
The (Iistanl nati ve or the age-old Marais
RaN-ly IJets root in the Quartier tI ' Antin.
Ane! {rom Menilmont ant . calm lookout poinl ,
He l urvey. Parie u {rom a hei&!tt;
IIi. thrill anti rrul5ali ly won' I let him butll5'"
"rom this '1>01when Ihe (!:Ods h.ve (Iropped him.
[Leon Go:d an.] Le Trionl/,he rle! onirlibll..J: Poeme heroi:...comiqlU! (Paris. 1828),
p.7. [E?,' )
" Hundreds of thousands of families , who work in the cent er of the capital, lilcep in
the outski rtl. This movement resembl eli the tide: in the morning the worken
st ream into Paris, and in the evening the same wave of people flows out. It is a
melancholy image .... I ....ould add ... that it is the fi rst time that humanity hal
aSliisted in a spectacle so dispiriting for the people." A. Gr anveau, L'Oll. vrier
c/evant W societe (Paris . 1868), p. 63 ("Les Logements a Pari s"). (E7.5)
J uly 27, 1830: "Out side the IIChool, men in shirtsleevell were already rolling casks;
others brought in paving siones and Ii8nd by wheelbarrow; a barricade was be-­
gun." G. Pinet, Hu toire de " Ecole poly,echniqlle (Paris, (887), p. 142. [E1a. l )
1833: '"The plan to surround Paris with a belt of fortifi cations ... aroused pas­
sionate int erest at this time. It was argued that detached forts would be useleSli for
the defense of the interior, and threatening onl y to I.he population. The opposition
wali univeJ;sal. ... Steps were taken to or gallize a large popular demonstration on
Jul y 27. Informed of these preparati oll s , , . , the government abandoned the proj·
eet .. . . Nevertheless, ... on the day of the review, numer ous cri es of ' Down with
the forts! ' echoed in advance of the procession: 'A bas le! f ort! detacMs! A btl! leI
b(l..J lille! !'" G. Pinet , Hut oire de " Ecole polytechniqu.e (Paris, 1887), PI' . 2 14-2 15.
The government mini literS took their r evenge with the affair of the "Gunpowder
Conspiracy."11 (E1a,2]
Engravings from 1830 show how the insurgentli threw all sOrU of furnilure down
on the troops from oul of the windows. This was a feature especiall y of the battles
on the Rue Sai nt· Ant oine. Cabinet des Estampeli. (E7a.3]
Rattier invokes a dream Paris, which he calls " the false Par ili"-as distinguished
from the real one: " the purer Parili, ... the truer Paris, ... the Parili that doesn' t
exist" (p. 99): " It is gralld, at t his moment in time, to set well -guarded Babylon
walzing in the arm! of Memphi s, and to set London dall cing in the embrace of
Peki ng .... One ofthcse fine mornings, Fr ance ....iII have a rude awakening when it
realizes it is confIDed within the wall s of Lutetia. of whi ch she forms but a cr oss·
roads .... The lI ext day. It aly, Spain. Denmark, and Russia will he incorporated
hy decr ee int o the Par isian muni cipalit y; three days later, the cit y gates will be
pushed back to Novaya Zcml ya alld to the Lalld of t.he Papuans. Paris will be the
world, and the uni vcrse will be Pa ri s. The sava nnahs and the pampas and the
mack Forest will compose the puhlic gardens of this greater Lutetia; the Alps, the
Pyrenees, the Andes, the Himalayas will he the Aventine and the sceni c hills of thi s
incomparahle city- knoil li of plealiure, st udy, or liolitude. But aU this is IitiU 1I0th­
ill g: Paris will mount to the akica It.ntl scale the fi r mament offinnamen18: it will an­
nex, as suburbs . the planets and the stara." Paul-Ernest de Rattier, Pam n 'exute
IHU (Paris. 1857). PI)' ,n-49. Thc&e ea rl y fantasiell II hould be compared with the
lIat ircs on Uauu malln published WII years later. [E7a,4]
Mready Rattier assignll to hill false Paris "' a unique and simple syll tem of traffi c
control that links geometricall y, and in pa rallel lines, all the avenues of this false
Parill to a singl e cent er, the Tuiteri es-thi s being all admirable method of defense
and of maint ai ning order." Paul-Ernest de Rattier, l\Jrill 11 'exute pUll (Paris.
1857), p . 55. [E8, l ]
" The false Paris has the good t aste to recognize that not hing is more useless or
more immoral than a ri ot . Though it may gain the upper hand for a few minut es, it
is queUed for sever al centuries. Instead of occupying itself with politics •... it is
peaceabl y absorbed in questions of t!t!onomy.. . A prince who is against fraud
. . knows ... very well ... that gold. a great deal of gold. is re(luiroo ... 011 our
planet t o build a 81epladder to the sky." Paul-Ernest de Rattier. Paris n'ex;.fle pas
(Paris, 1857), pp. 62, 66-67. (£8,2]
July Revolution: " Fewer were fell ed ... by buUets than hy other projet!t il ell. The
lar ge squares of gra nit e witb which Pa ri s is paved were dragged up to the top floors
of the houses a nd dropped 0 11 the heads of the soldi ers." Friedrich \'on Raumer,
Briefe am Paru utld Frankreich im Jahre 1830 (Leipzi g 183 1)), vol. 2, p. 145.
[E8,3]
Report of a third party. in Raumer's book: '" saw a group of Swiss, who had been
kneeling a nd begging for their li ves, kiUed amid j eering, aud I saw the stripped
bodies of the gravely wounded thrown cOlltemptuously onto the ba rricades to
ma ke them higher." Friedrich von Raumer. Briefe uus PClr;.s und FrCIIlkre;ch ;n
Jahre 1830 (Leipzig, 1831), vol. 2, p. 256. (£8,4)
Descripti ons of barrica des of 1830: Cil . Mott e, RevolutiOlu de Pa ris. 1830: Pian
fig.lrarij des barricades aim; que de.s po.s;tions et mouvements de.s c;toyell5 arme.s
el de.s troupes (published by the author ( Paris, 1830) . (£8,5]
Caption for a plate in u.s Ru;nes de Paru: 100 photogral)hies, by A. Liebert
(paris, 1871 ), vol. I : "" Barricade of the Federa tes, Constructed by Gaill a rd
Senior...
[ES,6]
"When the emperor ... ent ers his ca pital , the fifty horses of bis ca rriage are at a
I;;all op; between t he Gateway of Paris a nd hi s Louvre, he pauses under two thou·
saud triumphal arches and passes before fifty colossi erected ill his image .... And
thi s idolizing of the sovereign by hi sll ubjocts causes some dismay a mong la lter­
day pious, to whom it occurs that idols were never recipiclits of sudl hom­
age." Arsene HOll u aye, " Le Paris fUlur"; in Gautier. l-I olIS8u ye, and
Hl hers ,) PlI ri.s el ie. Parisien.s (III X IX- siecie (Paris. 1856), p. 460. [£8,7]
High dai ly allowall ccs for the depulics under Napoleon III . ]ES,S}
" The 4,054 harri cadefi of t he ' Three Glori ous llays' were made from ...
8. 125,000 paving stones.'" Le Romanlume (Exhibitioll catalogue (at the Ilib­
Iiotheque Na tioll ule), J anua ry 22-Mureh 10, 1930; exphlllator y note to no. 635,
A. de Grandsagne and M. Plant . Revolution de 1830, plun des combut.s de PlI r is].
]ES,9]
" When, last year. thousands of workers mar ched through the streets of the capital
ill a menaci ng ca lm; when, at II time of peace and cOlluuercial prosltCrity, they
illierruptetithe course of their work ... , the govcrnment 's first responsibilit y was
10 take forcefullllcasures against a di sturbance that was a ll more {Iangeroll s
for not knowing il8elf as such." 1.. . de Carne, " Publi ca tions democrati(IUes et
communistes," Revue de.s deux mOIU/e.s, 27 (Parill , 184 1), 1" 746. [E8a, l ]
"What fate does the present movement of societ y have in store for architecture?
I,..etlls look around us . . .. Ever more monuments . ever more palaces . On aU sides
ri se up great 'SlOne blocks, and everyt hing tends toward the solid, the heavy, the
vul gar; the genius of a rt is imprisoned by such an imperati ve. in which the imagi­
nation no longer has any room to play, can 110 longer be great , but rather is
exhausted in ... the ti ered orders on and in det!orating
friezes and the borders of windo"" frames. In the int erior, oll e finds still more of
t he court , more of the peristyle, ... with the little rooms more and more confined,
the studies a nd boudoirs exil etlto the ni ches under the spiral staircase, . . . ·where
they constitut e pi geonholes for people; it is the cellul ar system applied to the
family group. The problem ooomes how, in a given space, to make lise of the least
amoullt of materials alld to pack in the greatest number of people (while
them aU from one a nother) .... T hi s tendency-indeed . this fait accoDl pl i- is the
result of progressi,'e subdividing.... In a word . each for him.self and each by
him.selfhas incr easi ngly the guiding pri ncipl e of society, while the puhlic
wealth ... is scalt ered and s()uandered. Such are the causes , at thi s 1II0ment in
France, for the demise of monumentally scaled residential a rchitecture. For pri­
vate ha bita ti ons. as they become narrower, a re able to sustai n but a narrow a rt .
Til e artist, lackill g space, is reduced to making statuett es and easel paintings ....
In the presentl y cmerp ng condi tions of societ y, art is driveu illto a n impas8C where
it suffocates for lack of air. It is already suffering the dfects of thi s new norm of
limited a rtisti c facilit y. whi ch ccrtllin souls , supposetll y ad" aIlCctl , st."em 10 regllrd
as the goal of thei r phil alltbropy .... In architecture, we do not nHlke uri fOI' 11l'I' S
sake; we do not rai se monument s for the sole purpose of occupying the imagi nation
of archit ects and furni shing work for painters and sculpt ors. What is uecessll l'y,
t hen, is 10 apply the mon umel11 al mode of construction ... 10 all t he d ement i! of
iUllllan dwelling. Wt" must make it l)Ossi hle 1I0t onl y for a few pri,'ilcgctl individuals
hu t for all peopl e 10 live in pa laces. And if one is 10 occupy a pulace. one
properly li ve there together with ot hers. in bonds of 88sociation .... Where al'l is
concerned . therefore. it iM onl y the aSliociation of all clement s of the eummunily
that can laull ch the immense development we are outlining." D. Laverda.nt . De to
miu iotl de I'lIr' I'll du role des artille.: Solon de 1845 (Paris. 1845). from the
offices of La I' lmlatlge. pp. 13-15. [E8a,2)
" For sOlli e time now, .. there have L ttll efforts to di scover wher e thi s word
bOlllevard could have come from. As for me, ) am finally sati s.fi ed as to the etymol ­
ogy: it is merel y a variant of the word OOuleve,..ement upheavab ."
Edouard Fournier, Chmnique. et Ugende. de. rue. de Pari, (Pa ris, 1864). p. 16.
[E9, I)
" Monsieur Pica rd , attorney for the ci ty of Paris , ... has energeticaUy defended
the int erests of the cit y. What he has been presented with in the way of anteda ted
leases at thc moment of expropriations, what he has had to contend with in order
10 nullify fantastic titles a nd reduce the claims of the expropriated is almost be­
yond beli ef. A collier for the cit y one day placed hefor" him a lealie, antedated
w me years, on paper hearing official stamps. The simple maD believed himself
ah'eady in poues8ion of a weight y 8um for his shant y. Bul he did nol know that this
palM! r bore, in iu watermark, the dat e ofils manufacture. The attorney raised it to
the lighl ; it had been made three years after the date stamped." Auguste Lepage,
I.e. Cafe. politiqlle, et fitt erai,.e. de Pam (Va ris <1874». p. 89. [E9,2)
Observations on the physiology of the upri sing, in Niepovie's book: " Nothing has
changell 011 the surface, but there is something unuli ual in the air. The cabriolets,
omnibuses, and hackll ey coaches seem to have quickened their pace, and the
drivers keep turning their heads as though someQne were aft er them. There are
more groUI)S standing around than is usual. ... peQple look at one another with
an;\:ious interrogation in their eyes. Perhal)S thi s urchin or this worker hastening
by will know somet hing; ami he is stopped a nd questioned . What 's going on? ask
Ihe passersby. And the urchin or the worker responds, with a smile of utter indif­
ference, ' They are gathering al the Place de la Bastille,' or ' They are
lIear the Temple' (or somewhere else), and then hurries off to wher ever they are
guthering .... On the sit es themselves, Ihe scene is prett y much as he said: the
popul ation 11 118 massed to 8uch an extenl that you can hardly get through. The
pavement is strewn with sheets of paper. What is it? A proclamation of I.e
Monifeur republica in, whi ch dates from the Year 50 of the one and indivisible
French republic. People have gathered , you are told, to discu88 the proclamation.
The shops have lIot yet been closed; shol s have nOI yl:lt been fired .... Now then ,
behold the suviors .... All of a sudden, t.he holy battalion has halted before a
house. and, just as quickly. the third-story windows are thrown open and packets
of cartridges rain down . ... The distrihuti on is accomplished in the twinkling of
all eye and. wit h that , the battalion is Ilispatched on the run-a portion 10 one
II porli"tl 10 the ot her .... Vehicl es are no longer passing 011 the streets; t here
is leu noi se. Aud that ' , why one can hear, if I do noilleceive myself .. . Li sten,
they' re bealing Ihe drum. It is the call to a rms. The authorili es are roused."
Caetan Niepovie, Euuie. phy.iologiquc. , ur le. grande, nuEtropole, e1e l 'Eu,.ope
occidentale: Pari$ (Paris, 1840). pp. 20 1- 204. 206. [E9,3)
A barricade: " At the ent,.a nce to a narrow street , an omnibus lies wi tll its four
wll eels in the air. A pile of cr ates, whi ch had served lM! rhaps to hold oranges. rises
to the righl and to the left , and behind them. between the rims of the wheels and
the openings, small fires are bl uing, continually emitting small blue clouds of
smoke. " Gaetan Niepovie, Etudes phy'iologique. , ur leI grllndel metropole, de
('Europe occidentale: Pari, (Paris, 1840), 1' . 207. [E9a,I)
1868: dea th of Meryon. [E9a,2)
" It has been said that Charlet and Raffet by themselvcs prepared the way for the
Secoud Empire in France." Henr i Bouchot , UI Lithographie (Paris <1895» ,
pp. 8-9. [E9a,3!
From Arago's letter on the enci rclement of Paris (Associations Nat ionales en
de la I)resse Patriote) [extract from I.e Na tional of Jul y 21, 1833] : " All the
projected fort s, with regard to distance, would give access to the most populous
districts of the capital" (p. 5). " Two of the forts. those of It a li e and Passy, would be
enough to set fire to aU sections of Paris on the Left Bank of the Seille; ... two
ol hers, Fort Philippe and Fort Saint-Chaumont , could cover t.he rest of the ci ty
with their circle of fire" (p. 8). [E9a, 4)
1.11 Le Figaro of April 27, <1936,> Gaetan San voi sin cites this remark by Maxime
Ou Camp: " If there were onl y Parisians in Paris, ther e would be no revolutionar­
ies." Compare with simil ar statements by Ha uu mann. [E9a,5!
"A one-act pl ay hy Engels, written in haste alld performed in Septemher 1847 at
the Gennall Alli ance for Workers in Brussels, already ,.epresented a hattie on the
barricades in a German petty state--a battle .... hich ended ....ith the abdication of
the prince and the proclamation of a republic. " Custav Mayer, Friedrich Engeu ,
vol. I, F,.iedrich Engeu in !einer Friihzeit , 211d etl. (Berlin d 933». p. 269. I:
[E9a,6)
During the suppression of the June Insurrection, a rtiller y came to he used for the
first time ill street fighting. [E9a,7)
Haussmann's attitude toward the Parisian population recalls that of Guttot ta­
ward the proletariat. Guizot characterized the proletariat as the "external popula­
tion." (See Georgi Plekhanov, "Oher die Anfange der Lehre vom K.lassenkampP,'
Die neue' Zeit, 21, no. 1 (Swttgan, 1903), p. 285. [E9a,8}
Tile building of a ppears in Fourier as an example of " nonsalari ell hut
impassioned work." [E9a,9j
The practi ce of bamboozling the muni ci pal expropriati ons committee became a n
indust ry under Ha USSmallIl . "Small tradcrs and shopkt."epers ... would be 811p­
"Iiell ,,; th false book8 a nd inventorie1l, and , whcn necessar y. t heir premise8 would
(it t urned out ) be retlecorated a nd refurnished ; while duri ng the vi8it of the
cll mmi lt ee to the premi se8, a conSl ant stream of unexpeclt."(1 cli st omCr8 would pour
in." S. Kracauer, Jocqlles Offenbach Ilntl tlos Poris seiller Zeit (Amsterda m,
1937), p. 254.
LJ
[EIO, I)
Cit y pl a nning in Fouri er : " Each avenue, each 8treet , should open ont o 80me pa r­
t icul a r prospect, whether the countrY8ide or a publi c monument. The custom of
civilized nati on8-where streets come to an end with a wall , as in fortresses, or
with a heap of ea rth, as in the newer 8t.'Ction8 of Mar seille8-sholild be avoided.
Ever y house that faces thc strttl should be obli ged 10 have ornamcnt ation of the
fi rst class, in the ga rdens as well as on the buildings." Charles Fourier, Cite,
Oll vrieres: Des modifications it int mduire dans " architect ure des villes <extracu
from LA. (Par is, (849), p . 27. (EIO,2]
In connection with I-Iaussmann: " The mythi c structure develops rapidly: opposing
t he vaU cit y i8 the legenda ry her o destined to conquer it . In fact , ther e are hardly
any works of the peri od that do not cont ai n 80me invocati on in8pired by the
ca pi tal , a nd t he celebrated cr y of is of unusual simplicit y .... The
heroes of Ponson <i u Terrail are more lyrical in t heir inevitable apostrophe t o the
' modern Babylon' (thi8 is always the name used for Paris), See, for example, that
, , , of the ... false Sir Williams in the novel Le Club des Valets de coeur: ' 0 Pari s,
Pa ri s! You are the true Babylon, the true a rena of int ell ectual battle, the true
temple where evil has its cult and its priesthood; and 1a m sure that the breath of
til e archangel of shadows passes over you eternall y, like the winds over the infinit y
of the seas. 0 mot iollleu tempest , ocea n of stone, I want 10 be that dark eagle
which, amid your a ngr y wa\'es, disdai ns Ihe lightning and sleeps cheer full y on the
thunderstorm, his great wing extended . I want to be the genius of e\'il, the vulture
of t he seas, of thi s most perfidious a nd tempestuous sea on whi ch the human
passions t oss and unfur l. ,.. Roger Caill ois, " Pa ris, my the moderne," Nouvelle
Relmeff"Um;aise, 25, no. 284 (May I , 1937), p. 686. [EIO,3]
Blanqui st re\'olt of May 12, 1839: '"' He had wai led a week t o profit from the inst al­
lation of new troops unfamili ar wi th the maze of Pa ri s streets. The thousand men
0 11 whom he count ed for t he engagement \'I'ere supposed to assembl e het weell the
Hue Saint-Deni s und the Rue Saint-Ma rtin. Under a lII ugnifi cent Sun . , . t o­
warll three in t he aft ernoon, in the midst of a burgeoning Sunday cr owd , the
rc\'oill tioll ury bU1ll1 all at once muster s and appear8, Immedi atel y a vacuum, a
8ilell ce, sets in around them, " Gustave Geffroy, L'Erlf er lll e (Pa r is, 1926), vol. I ,
pp.81-82. {EIOa, l ]
In 1830, rope wus used, omong ot.her things, to ba rri cade the streets. [EI0a,2]
Raslignac's (amous challenge (ci ted in Messac <Le "Detective Novel" et I'influence
de fa pensee ,ciem ifU/ ue [ Pari s, 1929]), pp. 419-420): " Eugene. now alone,
walked a few steps to the topmost part of t he graveya rd. He 8aw Paris , spread
wi ndingly along t he t wo banks o( t he Sei ne. Lighu were begi nning to twinkl e. His
gaze fixed itself almost avidl y on the space between the column in t he Place
Vendome a nd til e cupola of Les Invalides. There li ved the world int o which he had
,,;shed to penetrate. He fastened on the murmurous hive a look that seemed al·
ready to be sucking the honey from it , and uttered these words: 'Now I ' m ready
for [EIOa,3]
To the theses of Haussmann corresponds the t abulation of Du Camp, according to
which the populati on of Pari s during the Commune was 75.5 percent foreigners
and pro\'incials. [ElOa,4]
For the Blanquist putsch of August 14, 1870,300 revolvers and 400 heavy dag·
gers were made available. It is characteristic of the street fighting in this period
that the workers preferred daggers to revolvers. [EI0a,5]
Kaufmann pl aees a t the head of hi s chapter entitled " Architectural Autonomy" an
epi gr aph from Le Contrat social: " a form . , . in which each is united with all , yet
obeys only himself a nd remains as free as before.-Such is the fundamental prob­
lem that the 80cial contract solves" (p. 42). 16 In this chapter (p. 43): " (Ledoux]
j ustifi etl the separ ation of the buildinp in the second proj ect for Cbaux with the
words: ' Return to principle .... Consult nature; man is everywhere isolated' (Ar­
chitectare, p. 70). The feudal principl e of prer evolutionary society ... can have
no further validit y now. .. The autonomously grounded form of every object
makes all st ri ving aft er theatrical effect appear sell8eleu.. , . At a stroke, it would
seem, ... the Bar oque a rt of the prospect disappears from Bight." E. Kaufmann,
Von Ledoux bis Le Corbwier (Vienna a nd Leipzig, 1933), p. 43. (EIOa,6j
"The renunciation of the pi cture8llue has its architectural equivalent in the refusal
of all pr08IJCcl-a rt . A hi ghl y signifi cant symptom is the sudden diffusion of the
silhouette.... Steel engra ving and wood engraving suppl ant the mezzotint , which
had fl ouri shed in the Ba roque age .... To anticipate our conclusions, ... let it be
said·that t he a utonomous principle retains its effi cacy . .. in the first decades a fter
the architecture of the Revoluti on, becoming ever weaker with the pauage of time
until , in the later decades of Ihe nineteenth century. it is virtuaUy unrecogniz­
ahl e." Emil Ka ufmann. Von Ledoux bis Le Corbwier (Vienna and Leipzig, 1933),
pp , 47, 50. [EII , I]
Napoleon Gaill ard: builder of t he mighty ba rri cade that . in 187 1, 8tood at the
ent ra nce of the Rue Royale a nd the Rue de Ri voli. [Ell.']
"At the curlier of the Rue de la Chaussee-d' Antin and the Rue Basse-du-Ramparl ,
there sit8 a house that is rema rka ble for t.he caryatids on the fa-;ade faci ng the Rue
Basse-du- Rampart. Because thi s laller sireN must di sappear. the magnificent
house with Ihe caryatids, built onl y twenly yeurs ago, is going 10 he {Icmolished.
The jury for expropriations grunts Ihe dll'ee miUion francs {l clllumle(1 by Ihe
owner and approved by the cily. Three miUion! What a useful and pro{luctive
expenditure!" August e Blanqui , Critique socia Ie, vol. 2, Progments et Tlotes
(Paris , 1885). p. 341. [EII ,3]
"Against Paris. Ollilurate scheme to clear oul the cily, 10 di sper se its population of
workers. Hypocriticall y-on a humanitarian pretext- they propose to redi strib­
ute throughout the 38,000 townships of France the 75,000 workers afft,-.: ted by
unemployment. 1849. " B1anqui . Critique sociale. vol. 2, Fragmellts et Tlotes
(Paris, 1885) , p. 313. [Ell ,4]
" A Monsieur d ' Havrincourt receutIy expounded on the strategic theory of civil
war. The troops must never be all owed to spend much time in the main areas of
di sturbance. They are corrupt ed by cont act with the rebels and refuse to fire
freely when repression becomes necessa ry.... The best system: construct citadels
dominating the suspect towns and ready at any moment to crush them. Solmen
must he kept garrisoned, away from the popular contagion." Auguste Blanqui,
Critique sociale, vol. 2 (Paris, 1885), pp. 232-233 (" Saint-Etienne. 1850").
[Ell ,SI
"The Haussmanization of Paris and the provinces is one of the great plagues of the
Second Empire. No one will ever know how many thousands of unfortunates have
lost their li ves as a consequence of deprivations occasioned by these senseless
constructious. The devouring of so many millions is one the principal causes of the
present distress.... 'When building goes well , everything goes well,' runs a popu­
lar adage, which has attained the slatus of economic u1I:iom. By this standard, a
huudred pyramids of Cheops, ri sing together iuto t.he clouds, would attest to
overflowing prosperity. Singular calculus. Yes, ill a well-ordered state, where
thrift did not strangle exchange, construction would be the true measure of public
fortune. For then it would reveal a growth in population aud all excess of labor
that ... would lay a foundation for t.he future. In any ot.her circumstances, the
trowel merely betrays the murderous fantasies of absolutism, whi ch, when its fury
for war momentarily slackens , is seized by the fury for building.... All merce­
nary tongues have been loosed in a chorus of celebration for the great works that
are renewing the face of Paris. Nothing 80 sad, so lacking in !Social spoutaneil y, as
this vast shifting of stoues by the hand of despotism. There is no more dismal
symptom of decadeuce. In proportion as Rome coll apsed in agony, il s monuments
grew more lIumerous and more colossal. It was building its own sepulcll er aud
making ready to die gloriously. Bul us for t he modern wodd- it has no wi sh to die,
and human stupidity is nearing it s em!. People are weary ()f grandiose homicidal
acts. The projects that have so di srupt ed til e capital , conditione{1 as they are on
repression and vanity. have failed the future no le8s thun the present. " A. Blanljui .
Critique &ocialc, vol. 1, CalJitai et travail (Parill, 1885) , I'p. 109- 111 (conclusion
of " Le LU1l: e"). The foreword to Capital e' tm vail ill dal ed May 26, 1869.
[ElIa, l ]
" The illusions aboul lhe falltaslic struct ures are di spelled . Nowhere are there
materials ot her thu.1l t.he hundred simple bodies . ... It ill with thi s meager assort­
ment that the universe is necessa rily made and remade, without respite. M. Hauu­
malin had just as much 10 rebuild Paris with; he had precisely tbese material s. It is
nol variety that stands out in hi s const ruct ions. Nature, whi ch also demolishes in
order 10 reCOll struct , docs a littJe better with the things it creates. It kuows how to
make such good li se of it s meager resources that one hesit ates to say ther e is a liuut
to the origillality of its works." A. Blanqui, L 'Et emite p(lr les futres: Hypothese
astronomique (Paris, 1872), p. 53. (EIla,2]
Di( TZeU( Wdtbiihn(, 34, no. 5 (February 3, 1938), in an essay by H. Budzislawski,
"Croesus Builds" (pp. 129-130), quotes Engels' "Zur WOhnungsfrage" <On the
Housing QyestiOID of 1872: "In reality the bourgeoisie has only one method of
settling the ho.using question after its fashion-that is to say, of settling it in such a
way that the solution continually poses the question anew. This method is called
' Haussmarm.' By the term ' Haussmarm,' I do not mean merely the specifically
Bonapartist manner of the Parisian Haussmann-cutting long, straight, broad
streets right through closely built working-class neighborhoods and lining them
on both sides with big luxurious buildings, the intention having been, apart from
the strategic aim of making barricade fighting more difficult, to develop a spe­
cifically Bonapartist building-trades proletariat dependent on the government,
and to tum the city into a luxury city pure and simple. By ' Haussmann' I mean
the practice, which has now become general, of making breaches in the working­
class neighborhoods of our big cities, particularly in those which are centrally
situated .... The result is everywhere the same: the most scandalous alleys ...
disappear to the accompaniment of lavish self-glorification by the bourgeoi­
sie . .. , but-they reappear at once somewhere else, often in the inunediate
neighborhood." 17_ With this goes the prize question: Why was the mortality rate
in London so much higher in the new working-class districts (around 1890?)
than in the slums?-Because people went hungry so that they could afford the
high rents. And Peladan's observation: the nineteenth century forced everyone to
secure lodgings for himself, even at the cost offood and clothing. [EI 2,1 ]
Is it true, as Paul \r\b:tJleim maintains in his article "Die neue Siegesallee" (Di(
'Uiu Weltbiihn(, 34, no. 8, p. 240), that Haussmann spared Parisians the misery of
large blocks of Bats? (EI 2,2]
Haussmann who, faced with the city plan of Paris, takes up Rastignac's cry of "A
!lOllS deux maintenant! " [EI 2,3]
'''The new boulevarl18 !Jave intr(Hluced li ght and air inlo unwholesome districts,
11111 have done so hy wiping oul , along their way, almost aU the courtyards and
ga.·dens-w!Jich moreover lJave beell rul ed oul by the progressive ri se in real
estat e prices. " Vi ctor Fournel , Paris nOlwcau et ParisfutlLr (Paris. 1868), p. 224
(" Conclusion"). [E12,4J
The oltl Paris hewails the monotony of the new streets; whereupon the new Paris
I"I:SPOlld8:
Why allihese reproaches? .
Thanks 10 the straight line, the eue of travel il arfords,
One avoids the shock of many a vehicle.
And, if one's eyes are good , one Jikewise avoids
The fools, the borrowers, the bailiffs, the bores:
Lasl hut nOlleast, down the whol e length of the avenue,
Each pll8serby now avoids the others, or nods from afar.
M. Bartlu': lelllY, Le VieliX Paris et Ie nouvea" (Pari s, 1861), PI' . 5-6. [EI2a,I J
The old Pari s: "The rent devours all , and they go without meat." M. Barthelemy,
l...e Vieux Paris et Ie nouvealt (Pari s, 1861 ), p. 8. [E12a,2]
Victor Fournel, in his Paris nouveau et Paris fuwr (Paris, 1868). particularl y in
the section "Un chapitre des mines de Paris moderne," gives an idea of the scale
011 whi ch Haussmann engineered destruction in Paris. "Modern Paris is a parvenu
that goes back no further in time than its own begi nnings, and that razes the old
palaces and old churches to build in their place beautiful whit e hou8e8 with stucco
ornament s and pasteboard 8tatue8. In the previous century, to write the annals of
the monuments of Paris was to write the allnals of Paris itself, from its origins up
through each of its epochs; soon, however, it will be ... mer ely to write the annals
of the last twent y yea rs of our OWD existence" (pp. 293-294). [E12a,3)
Fournel, in hi s eminent demonstration of Haussmann's mi sdeeds: " From the Fau­
bourg Saint -Germain to the Faubourg Saint-Honore, from the Latin Quarter to
the environs of the Palais-Royal, from the Faubourg Saint -Deni s to the Chaussee
d ' Antin, from the Boulevard des ItaLiens to the Boulevard du Temple, it seemed ,
in each case, that you were passing from one continent to another. It all made for
so many distinct small cities within the capital city-a city of study, a city of
COlllmer ce, a cit y of luxury, a ci ty of refuge , a ci ty of movement and of popular
pleasures-aUof them nonetheless Linked to one another by a h08t of gradations
and transitions. And thi s is what is being obliterated ... by the construction
ever ywhere of the same geollletrical and rectilinear street , with its unvarying mil e­
laug per specti ve and its continuous rows of houses that are alwa ys the same
house." Victor Fournel , Paris 1I0uvet!lt et Paris futlLr, PI' . 220-221 ("'Con­
cl usion"). [E12a,4)
"They ... transplant the Boulevard des haliell s in its entirety to the Montagne
Sainte-Genevieve--with about as much utility and profit as a hothouse flower in
the forest- and they create Rues de RivoH in the ancient ci ty cent er, which has no
need of them. Eventually thi s cradle of the capital , having been demolished , will
comprise at most a barracks, a church, a hospital, and a palace." Victor Fournel,
Pari$ n O l w e a l ~ et Puris futur (Paris, 1868), p. 223. The last thought echoes a
stanza from Hugo's "A l' Arc de Triolllphe. " [E13, I)
Haussmann's work is accomplished today, as the Spanish war makes clear, by
quite other means. [E13,2]
Temporary tenants under Haussmann: "The industrial nomads among the Dew
ground-floor Parisians fall into three principal categories: commercial photogra­
phers; dealers in bric-a. -brac who run buaar s and cheap shops; and exhibitors of
curiosities, particularly of femal e giants. Up to now, these interestin g personages
have numbered among those who have profited the most from the transformation
of Paris." Vi ctor Fournel, Paris nouveau et Parisfllwr (Paris, 1868), pp. 129-130
("Promenade pittoresque a. travers Ie nouveau Paris") . [Et 3,31
"The covered market of u s Hailes, by universal consent, constitutes the most
irreproachabl e construction of the past dozen years.... It manifests one of those
logical harmonies whi ch satisfy the mind by the obviousness of its signification. "
Victor Fournel, Paris nouveau et Pari.tflt tur, p. 213. [E13,4]
Already Tissot invites specul ation: "The cit y of Paris is supposed to make a series
of loans totaling hundreds of millions of francs and, at the same time, purchase the
better part of a qltarti.er in order to r ebuild it in a manner conforming to the r e­
quirt ment s of taste, hygiene, and ease of communication. Here is matter
for speculation." Anll':dee de Tissot , Paris et wndres compare.t (Paris, 1830),
pp.46-47. [E13,51
In Le Paue, Ie present , l'avenir de la Repltblique (Paris, 1850), p. 31 (cited in
<Jean> Cassou, Quarante-huit (Paris, 1939>, PI'. 174-175), Lamartllie already
speaks of the "nomadic, indecisive, and di ssolute cit y dweller!! who are corrupted
by their idJeness in public places and who go whichever way the wind of factional­
ism blows, heeding the voi ce of hip! who shouts the loudest ." [E13a,l ]
Stahl on the Parisian tenement houses: " It was already [in the Middle Ages] an
overpopulated metropolis that was squeezed within the ti ght belt of a walled for·
tification. For the mass of people, there were neither single-famil y houses nor
separately owned houses nor even modest cottages. Buildings of lIIany stories were
erected on the narrowest of lots, generally allowing onl y two, often only one, front
window (though elsewher e three-window houses wer e the rule). These buildings
usually remained wholly unadorned , and when they did not simply come to a stop
al Ihe t op, I.ll ere was al mosl II single gahl e affixed ther e .. .. On tile roofs. the
siluation was stra uge enough. wi th unll ssuming superstructures and IIIlIlIsardes
nestl ed ncxt to Ihe chimney flues. whicll were pl aced ext remely close t o one an­
other." Sta hl SI'CS, in the freedom of the roofi ng structures-a freedom to whi ch
modern a rchit ects ill Pa ri s Li kewi se adhere--"a fa ntastic and thoroughl y Gothic
element :' Fritz Sta hl . P(lris (Berlin (1929»), pp. 79--80. [E13a,2]
" Ever ywhere ... the pecul iar chimneys serve only to height en the di sorder of
these for ms [the mansa rdes]. This is . .. a trait common to aU Parisian houses.
£" el\ til e oldest of them have that high waU from which the tops of the chimney
flues ext end.... We are fa r relll o"ed here from the Roman style , whi ch has been
t aken t o be the foundati on of Parisia n a rchitecture. We are in fact lIearer ill!
opposite, t he Got hic, to whi ch the chimneys clearly allude . .. . If we want t o call
this more loosely a " nortllern style." then we can see that a second .. . northern
element is present to mitigate the Roma n character of the streets. This is none
other than di e modern boul evards and a venues .. . • which are planted, for the
IllOst pa rt. with tn.'C8; . .. a nd rows of trees. of cour se , are a feature of the north­
ern cit y. " Fritz Stahl , P(lris (Berlin), pp. 21- 22. [E13a,3]
In Ilari s, die modern house has " developed gradually out of the preexisting one.
This could happell hecall se die preexisting one was already a lar ge townhouse of
the type cr eated here .. . in the seventeentll century 0 11 tile Pl ace Ven<lome. where
today the residential palaces of former times have come to harbor husine88
li shments of ever y kind- without having suffered di e least alt era tion to their
fa.. adea." Frit z Sta hl , Paris (Berlin), p. 18. (E14]
A pl ea for Ha uu mann: " It is well known t hat . . . the nineteenth century enti rely
lost , together with other fundament al concepts of art. the concept of the ci t y u ...
a unified whole. Henceforth there was no longer any cit y planning. New huildinp
....ere introduced into the old network of str eets without a "Ian. and they were
expallded without a pla n .... What ca n properly be call ed t ile a rchitectural his­
tory of a city ... .... as in this way everywllere terminated. Paris is the only excep­
tion, a lld as such it was greeted ...;th incomprehension and disapproval"
(pp. 13-14). '''I' hrt.'C gell cratioll s failed to "lIderstood what cit y pl anning is . We
know ....hat it is, but in our case thi s knowledge generall y brings only regret for
missell oppOl·ltlllit ies . .. . These considerations make itl'ossible to a pprociate the
only cit y plan" er or genius in the modern ....orld- a mall , moreover, who indirectl y
created nil tire Alllcri can metropoli ses" (pp. 168-169). " It is solely intilis per spec­
tive. then. thllt HaU8Sllll.l llll 'S great thoroughfares take 011 thei r reo llll eaning. With
them, Ihe nl'W cil y . . . int ervenes ill the old and, in a cert ai n sell se, draws 0 11 the
01(1, ....ithout otllt:r wi se violating il.8 cha racter. Thus , these tll oroughrarcs lII ay be
soillt o Inlve. along .... ith t heir utility. all aestheti c effect , such thotl.he old cit y and
the new a rc II ot left opposit e each other, as is the cose ever ywhere else,
but a re drawn togclhcr into one. The moment you come out of some ancient lane
onto one of Haun mann's avenues, you' re ill contact ...;th this ne ....er Paris-the
Paris of the past three centuries . For Haun mann took over not only the form of
the avenue alld boulevarll but also the form of the house from the imperial capital
lai d out hy Louis xrv. That is why his Itreets can perform the function of making
the city int o a conspi cuous unity. No. he has not destroyed Paris; he hu
brought it to completi on .... This must be acknowledged even .... lIen you realize
how much beaut y was sacrificed .... Uau1I8mann was alsuredly a fanatic-but his
work could be accomplished onl y by a fanati c." Fritz St ahl , Pam: Eille Stadt au
KURstwerl..· (Berlin). pp. 173-174. [E14a]
F
[Iron Construction 1
Each epoch dreams the one to foIlO\....
- Michelet, AV(:llirl" (Europt, 73, p. 6)
Dialectica1 deduction of iron construction: it is contrasted both with Greek con­
struction in stone (raftered ceiling) and with medieval construction in stone
(vaulted ceiling). "Another an, in which another static principle establishes a tom:
even more magnificent than that of the other two, will struggle from the womb of
time to be born.... A new and unprecedented ceiling system, one that will
naturally bring in its wake a whole new realm of art forms, can ... make its
appearance only after some particular material-fonnerly neglected, if not un­
known, as a basic principle in that application-begins to be accepted. Such a
material is ... iron. which our cenrury has already staned to employ in this
sense. In proportion as its static properties are tested and made known, iron is
destined to serve, in the architecture of the future, as the basis for the system of
ceiling construction; and with respect to statics, it is destined to advance this
system as far beyond the Hellenic and the medi eval as the system of the arch
advanced the Middle Ages beyond the monolithic stone-lintel system of antiq­
uity.... If the static principle of force is thus borrowed from vaulted construc­
tions and put to work for an entirely new and unprecedented system, then. with
regard to the art forms of the new system, the fonnal principle of the Hellenic
mode must lind acceptance." <um hu'ndvtjiihrig(1l Ceburl.stag 1W.rl BfMtticilerJ
(Berlin, 1906), pp. 42, 44--46. (The principle of Hellenic architecrure and Ger­
manic architecrure as carried over into the architecrure of our time. ) (FI , I)
Glass before its time, premarure iron. 10 the arcades, both the most brittle and the
strongest materials suffered breakage; in a cenain sense, they \\-"ere
Around the middle of the past cenrury, it was not yet known how to build with
glass and iron. Hence, the light that fell from above, through tlle panes between
the iron supports, was dirty and sad. (Fl ,2]
"The mid- 1830s see the appearance or the first iron rUrnilUre. in the rorm or
bedsteads, chair8, small t allle8, a nd it i8 hi ghl y cllIJrllcteriii tic or the
CPOcll that this rurniture was prererred beca use it could be mllde to imitill c per-
reedy a ny t ype or wood. Shortl y arter 1840, rull y padded rurniture appears in
Frallcc. and ",;t!1 it the upholstered style become8 dominant. " 1\1al[ Yon Doehn, Die
Mocle illl XIX. j(l/ir/lllflderl , vol. 2 (Muni ch, 19(7), p. 131 . [FI .3)
The two great advances in technology-gas' and cast iron-go together. "Aside
from the great quantity of lights maintained by the merchants, these galleries are
illuminated in the evening by thirty-four jets of hydrogen gas mounted on cast­
iron volutes on the pilasters." The quote is probably referring to the Galerie de
l'Opera. J. A. Dulaure, Histoire de ParU . .. depuis 1821 jUJqu'jz nrujourJ, vol. 2
« Paris, 1835), p. 29). [FI,4)
'"'The stagecoach gallops up to the quay, by the Seine. A bolt of lightning Rashes
over the Pont d'Austeriitz. The pencil comes to rest." Karl Gutzkow, Briefi aUJ
Paris, vol. 2 <i..eipzig, 1842), p. 234. The Austerlitz Bridge was one of the first
iron structures in Paris. With the lightning Bash above, it becomes an emblem of
the dawning technological age. Close by, the stagecoach with its team of black
horses, whose hoofs strike romantic sparks. And the pencil of the Genna.n author
who sketches them: a splendid vignette in the style of Grandville.
[F1,51
" In reality, we know of no beautiful thea ters, no beautiful rail road 8tation8, DO
bea utiful exhibition halls, no beautiful casinos-that is to 8ay, no ooautiful hou8es
of industry or of frivolity." Maurice Talmeyr, UI Cite du suns (Paris. 1908),
p. 277. (Fl,6]
Mugic of Cllst iron: " l:Iahblle
z
was able then to cOllvi nce him8elf that the ring
a round this planet was nothing other than a circul ar balcony on ",·h.i ch the inhabi­
t ant s or Saturn strolled in the evening to get a breath or fresh air." Grandville. Un
(llIIre lII,omle (Pari8(844» , p. 139. 0 Ha8hi sh 0 [Fl ,7]
10 mentioning factories built in the style of residential houses, and other things of
this kind, we must take into account the following parallel from the history of
architecture: "I said earlier that in the period of 'sensibility: temples were erected
to friendship and tenderness; as taste subsequently rumed to the classical style, a
host of temples or temple·like buildings immediately sprang up in gardens, in
parkS, on hills. And these were dedicated not only to the Graces or to Apollo and
the Muses; fann buildings. tOO, including bams and stables, were built in the
style of temples." J acob Falke. CeJchichte deJ modmun GeJchmaclu (Leipzig, 1866).
pp. 373-374. lllcre are thus masks of architecture, and in such masquerade the
arcllitecture of Berlin around 1800 appears on Sundays, like a ghost at a costume
ball. [Fla,l ]
"Every tradesman imitates the materials and methods of others. and r.hink.s he
has accomplished a miracle of taste when he brings out porcelain cups resenl­
bling the work of a cooper, glasses resembling porcelains, gold j ewelry like leather
thongs, iron tables with the look of rattan, and so on. Into this arena rushes the
confectioner as we11-quite forgetting his proper domain, and the touchstone of
his taSte- aspiring to be a sculptor and architect.
n
Jacob Falke, Gescnichte des
motkmen Gmnmadf.J, p. 380. This perplexity derived in pan from the superabun·
dance of technical processes and new materials that had suddenly become avail·
able. The effort to assimilate them more thoroughly led to mistakes and failures.
On the other hand, these vain attempts are the most authentic proof that techno·
logical production, at the beginning, was in the grip of dreams. (Not architecture
alone but all technology is, at certain stages, evidence of a collective dream.)
[Fla,2]
" With iron construction- a s«ondary genre, it is true--a new art was born. The
east-side railroad station designed by Duquesnay, the Gare de l 'Est, was in thi s
regard worthy of archit«ts' attention. The use of iron greatly increased in that
period, thanks to the new combinations to which it lent itself. Two quite differ ent
but equally remarkable works in this genre deserve to be mentioned fi rst : the
Bihliotheque Sainte-Genevieve and the cent al marketplace, Les Halles. The latter
is ... a veritable archet ype: reproduced several times in Paris and ot her cities, it
proceeded. as the Gothi c cathedral had done, to appear aU over France.... Nota­
ble improvements can be observed in the details. The monumental lead-work bas
become rich and elegant ; the railings, candelabras, and mosaic flooring all testify
to an often successful (Iuest for beaut y. Technological advances have made it possi­
ble to sbeathe cast iron with copper, a process which must not be abused. Ad­
vances in luxury have led. even more successfully, to the replacemeDl of cast iron
by bronze, something which has turned the streetlamps in certain public places
into objets d'art. " 0 Gas 0 Note t o this passage: "In 1848, .5,763 tons of iron en­
tered Paris; in 1854, 11 ,771; in 1862, 41 ,666; in 1867. 61,.572." E. Levasseur,
Hut oire des classes ouvneres et de l'indw trie en France de 1789 a1870, vol. 2
(Paris, 1904), pp. .531-.532. [Fl a,3}
" Henri Labrouste, an artist whose talents a re sober and severe. successfull y in­
augurated the ornamental use of iron in the COll structi on of the Bihliothet(ue
Sainte-Genevieve and the Bibliotheque Nationale." Levasseur, llutoire des
classes ouvrreres, p. 197. [Fla,4]
First const r uction of Les Halles in 18.51 , long after the proje<: t had heen approved
by Napoleon in 1811. It met with general disfavor. This stone structure was known
as ie/ort de la HaUe. " It was a n unfortunat e attempt which will not be repeated.
... A mode of construction better suited to the end proposed will now he sougbt .
The glassed sections of the Gare de l' Ouest amI the memory of the Crystal Palace,
which bad housed the world exhibiti on at London in 18.51, were no doubt respon­
sihl e for the idea of using glalili and cast iron almost exclusively. Today we ca n see
the justifi cati on for turning 10 such lightweight materiab. which, beller than any
others, fulfill ed t.he conditi oll s laid down for these estahlishmcnt s. Work on Les
Hailes has not let up since 1851, yet lhey are still not finished." Maxime Du Camp,
Pari.! (Paris, 1875), yol. 2. I'p. l21- 122. [Fla,S)
Plan for a train stat ion intemled to the Ga re Saint-Lazare .. Corner of Pl ace
de la Madeleine li nd Rue Tronchet. " According to the report, the rails-support ed
by ' elegant cast-iron arclu:s ri sing twent y feet above the ground, and having a
length of 61.5 meters' - would have crossed the Rue Saint-Lazare, the Rue Saint _
the Ruedes Mathurin... , and the Rue CasteUane , each of which would have
had its own station."0 FUineur. Railroad sta ti on near (?) the streets 0" ... Merely
by looking at thcm, we ca n see how little these plans actua ll y anticipated the future
of the railroads. Although dcscribed as ' monumental ,' the of this train
station (which, fortunately, was never built) is of unusually small dimensi ons; it
would 1I0t even serve t o accommodate one of those shops tha t nowadays extend
along the corners of certain intersections. It is a sort of It ali an ate building, three
stories high, with each story Il avingeight wi ndows; the mai n ent rance is marked by
a stairway of twenty-four steps leading to a semicircuJar IJOrch wide enough for
five or six persons to pass through side by side. " Du Camp, Pa ru, vol. I , pp. 238­
ill
The Gare de l ' Ouest (today?) presents " the double aspect of a factory in operation
and a mini stry." Ou Camp , Paru, vol. I , p. 241. "With your back to the three
tunnel s that pass under the Boulevanl des BatignoUes, you call take in the whole of
the trai n station. You see that it almost bas t he shape of an immense mandolin: the
rail s would form the strings, and the signal posts, pl aced at every crossing of the
tracks, would form t he pegs." 011 Camp, Paris, vol. I , p. 2.50. (F2,2]
"Charon . . . r uined by the installation of a wire footbridge ovcr thc Styx. " Grand­
ville, Un alllre moncle (Paris, 1844), p. 138. (F2,3]
The first act of Offenbach's Vie parisiennc takes place in a railroad station. "The
iudustrial U10vemellt seems t o run in the hlood of this generat ion- t o such an
extcnt that. for exampl e, Flaehat has built hi s house on a plot of land where, on
either side, trains arc always whi stling by. " Sigfri ed Gie<li on, Ballen in Fmnkreich
(Leipzig and Berlin <1928» . p. 13. Eugenc Flacha t (1802-1873), builder of rail ­
roads, designer. [1-'2 ,4)
On the Calerie d ' O.-leans in the Pa lais- Hoyal (1829- 1831): "Even Fontainc, one of
origi na tors of the Empi re is cOIl Ycrted ill la ter years to t he new mat erial.
III 183.5-1836. moreover, he replaced the wooden flooring of the Galeric des
Dutailles in VerSililles wit h an iron assemhl y.- These galleri es , like t hosc in the
Palais- Hoyal , were subsequentl y perfected in It aly. For U8 , tlICY li re a point of
depilrt urc for new urchit ectural!)I"oblellls: traill stations, and the like." Sigfri cd
Cicdioll , Bnllen ill J.' rallkreich , p. 21. [F2,5]
"The complicatt.."'! construction (out of iron and copper ) of the Corn Exchange in
1811 was the work of the archite<:t BeUange and the Brunet. It is the first
tillle. 10 our knowledge, that architect and engineer are no longer united in one
person. .. Hittorff, the builder of the Care tlu Nord, got hill insight into iron
construction frolll BeUangc.- Naturally, il is a matter more of all application of
iron than a eonSlruction in iron. TeeilltiqutlS of wood construction were simply
transposed to iron. " Sigfricd Gi edioll , Hauen in Fnwkreich. p. 20. [F2,6)
Apropos of Veugny' s covered market built in 1824 near the Madeleine: "The slen­
derness of the delicat e cast-iron columns brings to mind Pompeian wall paintings.
' The construction, in iron and cast iron, of tbe new market near Ihe Madeleine i,
one of the most graceful achievements in this genre. One cannot imagine anything
more elegant or in better taste .. . .' Eck, 7raile." Sigfried Giedion, Hauen in
Frankreich , p. 21. [F2,7)
"The most important step toward industrialization: mechanical prefabrication of
specific forms (sections) out of wrought iron or steel. The fields interpenetrate: ...
in 1832, railroad workers began lIot with buildillg components but with rails. Here
is the point of deparlure for sectiollal iron, which is the basis of iron construction.
[Note 10 this passage: The new methods of construction penetrate slowly into
industry. Double-T iroll was used in flooring for the first time in Paris in 1845,
when the masolls were oul on strike and the price of woo<l had risen due to in­
creased construction and larger spans. ]" Ciedion, Hauen in Frankreich, p. 26.
(F2 ,8)
The first structures made of iron served transitory purposes: covered markets.
railroad stations, exhibitions. Iron is thus immediately allied with functional
moments in the life of the economy. What was once functional and transitory,
however, begins today, at an altered-tempo, to seem fonnal and stable. (F2,9)
" Les Hailes consiSI of two groups of pavilions joined to each other by covered
lancs. It is a somewhat timid iroll structure that avoids the generous spans of
Iloreau alld Flachal and obviously keeps to the model of the greenhouse."
Gi edioll , Hauen if! Franl.;reich . p. 28. (F2a,l)
On the Gare tlu Nord: " Here they have entirely avoided Ihat abUlltlanee of space
whit:h is fount! in wailing rooms, cutrywa ys, and rcstaurants arolllld 1880, and
which led 10 the problem of the railroad Slatioll as exaggerate,1 baroque palace."
Gi cdioll , Huuen ill Frtlllkreicli , p. 31. [F2a,2)
""Vherever the n.ineteenth century feels itself to be unobserved, it grows bold."
Giedion, Baum in Frallkreich, p. 33. In fact, this sentence holds good in the
general fonn that it has here: the anonymous art of the illustrations in family
mag-.wncs and children' s books, for example, is proof of the poinl. [F2a,3)
Railroad stations <Balmhi!fe>used to be known as Eisrnhahnhi!fe.3 [F2a,4)
There is talk of renewing art by beginning with fonns. But arc nOt fonns the true
mystery of nature, which reserves to itself the right to remunera.te- precisel y
through them- the accurate, the objective, the logical solution to a problem posed
in purely objective temu? When the wheel was invented, enabling continuous
forward motion over the ground, wouldn' t someone there have been able to say,
with a certain justification, "And now, into the bargain, it's round- it's in theform
ofa whed'!" Are not all great conquests in the field offomu ultimately a matter of
technical discoveries? Only now are we beginning to guess what fonus-and
they will be determinative for OUT epoch-lie hidden in machines. "To what
extent the old fonns of the instruments of production influenced their new forms
from the outset is shown, . .. perhaps more strikingly than in any other way, by
the attempts, before the invention of the present locomotive, to construct a loco­
motive that actually had two feet, which, after the fashion of a horse, it raised
alternately from the ground. It is only after considerable development of the
science of mechanics, and accumulated practical experience, that the fonn of a
machine becomes settled entirely in accordance with mechanical principles, and
emancipated from the traditional fonn of the tool that gave rise to it." (In this
sense, for example, the supports and the load, in architecrure, are also "fonus.")
Passage is from Marx, Kapital, vol. 1 (Hamburg, 1922), p. [F2a,5)
1brough the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, architecture is linked with the plastic arts.
"That was a disaster for architecture. In the Baroque age, this lllLity had been
perfect and self-evident. In the course of the nineteenth century, however, it
became untenable." Sigfried Giedion, Bauen in Frankreich <Leipzig and Berlin,
1928>, p. 16. This not only provides a very important perspective on the Ba­
roque; it also indicates that architecture was historically the earliest field to out·
grow concept of art, or, beuer, that it tolerated least well being contemplated
as "art"-a category which the nineteenth century, to a previously unimagined
extent but with hardly more justification at bottom, imposed on the creations of
intellecrual productivity. (F3, I)
The dusty fata morgana of the winter garden., the dreary perspective of the train
statiqn, with the small altar of happiness at the intersection of the tracks- it all
under spurious constructions, glass before its time, premature iron. For
m. the first third of the previous cenrury, no one as yet understood how to build
WIth glass and iron. That problem, however, has long since been solved by
hangars and silos. Now, it is the same with the human material on the inside of
arcades as with the materials of their construction. PinlPS are the iron bear­
Illgs of this street, and its glass breakables are the whores. (F3.2)
"The new ' architecture' <Baurn) has ils origi n in the momenl uf industry's fOI'mu­
tion, aroulld 1830-the moment of mutation from Ill e craftsmunl y to the iudustrial
production process ." Gicdion , Huuell ill Fr(JIlkreich , p. 2. [F3.3)
"Railroad ttacks," with the and unmistakable dream world that attaches
[Q them, are a very impressive ofjust how great the natural symbolic
pO\\-'Cr of technological ilmovation can In this regard, it is illuminating to learn
of the bitter polemic waged against iron rails in the 18305. In A Treatise in
Elementary Locomotion, for example, A. Gordon argued that the steam carriage (as
it was called then) should run on lanes of granite. It was deemed impossible to
produce enough iron for even the very small of railway lines being
plrumed at that time. [F3,4]
It must be kept in mind that the magnificent urban views opened up by new
constructions in iron-Gicdion, in his &urn in Frankreich (illustrations 61--63),
gives excellent examples with the Pont Transbordeur in Marseilles-for a long
rime were evident on1y to "'()rkers and engineers. 0 Marxism 0 For in those days
who besides the engineer and the proletarian had climbed the steps that alone
made it possible to recognize what was new and decisive about these structures :
the feeling of space? [F3,5]
In 1791 , the term ingenieur began to be used in France for tho5e officers skilled in
the arl!! of fortifi ca tion and siege. "At the same time, and in the same counlry, the
opposition between ' conll truction' and ' a rchit et: ture' began to make itseLffeit; and
before 10llg it figured in personal att acks. This antitlicllis had been entirely un­
knuwn in t he pall t . .. . 811t in the innumer able aefl thetic t reatises which after the
storms of the Revoluti on guided French a rt back into regular channels, ... the
COll SlrllctCItr5 stood opposed to the and with thi s tbe further question
arose: Di.lnot the illg{micllrs, as the allies of the former, occupy with
them, sociall y Sileaking, a distinct camp?" A. G. Meyer, Eisenbaltten (Esslingen,
1907). p. 3. [F3.6]
" The teel llli.,ue of slune is stereolomYi Ihat of wood is tectoni cs. What
does iron construction have in COllllllon with the one or the other?" Alfred Gott·
hol.1 Meyer, Eisenballte" (Esslingen, 1907), p. 5. " In stone we feel the natural
spirit of the mall. Iron is, for us, only artifi ciall y cOlllpressed durabilit y and
tcnacity" (p. 9). '" Iron has a tensi le strength fort y times greater than that of stone
and ten timcs greater tillm that of wOOlI. although net weight is only four tinles
that of stone ami onl y eightl.imes that of wood. In comparison widl a stone mass of
the same . Iimensiolls . therefore. an iron body I)(lSSes8CS. with onl y four time!! the
weight . a load limit forty times hi gller" (p. 11). [F3,1)
mutedal , ill it s fi rst humlred ycu rs. has already undergone eSHenlial trans·
iron , wrought iroll, ingol iron_ o di a l tOtlay the engi neer has al
his .Iislmli al a IlIIil lling ma lerial compl etel y different from that of some fifty years
11gO•••• In Ihe pcrsl"-"Clive of hi storical thc;;c are ' fermcnl il' of a dill<iui.
d ill g instuhility. No otll('r hllilding Ill ah:r illl offers a nything rClllot ely similllr. We
Iwn' at the bcgi nning of a ,Ie... clopment thut ill !l ure to procee,1 ut a furious
pUC,' •.•. Ti le . . . comlit.iollll or t.he IlIl1l crial . . . are ...olutili:t.t:cl in ' IimitlC811
poilllibiJitics.' ·· A. G. Meyer, Eisenballtell, p. 11. tron as revolutionary building
material!
[F3a,l ]
Meanwhile, how it looked in the vulgar consciousness is indicated by the crass
yet typi c. 1.l utterance of a contemporary journalist, according to whom posterity
will one day have to confess, "In the nineteenth century, ancient Greek architec·
ture once again blossomed in its classical purity." Europa, 2 (Stuttgart and
Leipzig, 1837), p. 207. [F3a,2]
Railroad stationt at "ahodcs of art." " If Wicrtz bacl had a t his di sposal ... the
puhli c mOlluments of modern ci ...ilization- r ailway IItalions, legislative chambers,
unh'enil Y lectllre halls, marketplaces, town hallt- .. . who can say wbat bright
and dra matic lI ew worlds he would have traced upon his canvas!" A. J . Wiertz,
Ocuvre5iitl eruircs (paris, 1870), pp. 525-526. (F3a,3]
The teclUlica1 absolutism that is fundamental to iron construction-and funda·
mental merel y on account of the material itself-becomes apparent to anyone
who recognizes the extent to which it contrasts with traditional conceptions of
the value and utility of building materials. "Iron inspired a certain distrust just
it was not imnunediately furnished by nature, but instead had to be
artificially prepared as a building material. 1bis distrust is on1y a specific applica·
tion of that general sentinlent of the Renaissance to which Leon Battista Alberti
(De re tudjficatona [Paris, 15121, fol. xliv) gives expression at one point with the
words: ' Nanl est quidcm cujusquis corporis pars indissolubilior, quae a natura
conoeta et counita est, quam quae hominum manu et ane conjuncta atque,
compacta est' <For there is, in each thing, a part that is the work and the assem·
blage of nature, and that is more indissoluble than that which is produced and
assembled by the hand of man with his arb." A G. Meyer, Eisrnhauten (Esslin·
gen, ! 907), p. 14. 1",,')
It is WOM considering- and it appears that the answer to this question would be
in the negative-whether, at an earlier period, technical necessities in architecture
(bUt also in the other arts) detcnnined the fonus, the style, as thoroughly as they
do today, when such teclUlological derivation secms actually to become the
signature of everything now produced. With iron as a material, this is .already
clearly the case, and for the first time. Indeed, the "basic forms in which
iron appears as a building material are ... .already themselves, as distinct synthe·
ses, partly new. And their distinctiveness, in large measure, is the produa and
expression of the natural properties of the building material, since such properties
have been technically and scientifically developed and exploited precisely for
theM forms. The systema tic indusuial process which convertS raw material intO
immediately available building material begins, with iron, at a much earlier stage
than wilh previously existing building materials. Between matter ruld material, in
lhis case, lherc is a relationship quite different from that between stone and
ashlar, clay ruld tile, timber and beam: with iron, building material and structural
form are, as it were, more homogeneous." A. C. Meyer, Eisenhautm (Esslingen,
1907), p. 23. [F3. ,5]
!
1840-1844: "The construction of fortifications, inspired by Thiers. .. Thiers,
!
who thought that railroads would never work, had gates constructed in Pam at
the very moment when railroad stations were needed." Dubech and d'Espezel,
Hi!toire de Poris (Paris, 1926). p. 386. [F3a,6]
!
•
"From the fifteenth century onward, this nearly colorless glass, in the form of
window panes, rules over the house as well. The whole development of interior
space obeys the command: 'More lightl'5_1n seventeenth-century Holland, this
development leads to window openings that, even in houses of the middle class,
ordinarily take up almost half the wall ... . 1The abundance of light occasioned
by this practice must have ... soon become disagreeable. Within the room,
curtains offered a relief that was quickly to become, through the overzealous art
of the upholsterer, a disaster ... . 1 The development of space by means of glass
and iron had come to a standstill. 1Suddenly, however, it gained new strength
from a perfectly inconspicuous source. 1Once again, this source was a 'house,'
one designed to 'shdter the needy; but it was a house neither for mortals nor for
divinities, neither for hearth fires nor for inanimate goods; it was, rather, a house
for plants. 1The origin of all present-day architecture in iron and glass is the
greenhouse." A. G. Meyer, Eismbautm, p. 55. oLight in the Arcades 0 Mirrors 0
The arcade is the hallmark of the world Proust depicts. Curious that, like this
world, it should be bound in its origin to the existence of plants. [F4,1]
On the Crystal Palace of 1851: "Of all the great things about this work, the great­
est, in every sense of the word, i8 the vaulted central hall .... Now, here too, at
fir8t , it was not a space-articlilating auhitect who did the talking but a-gar­
dener.... Thi8 is literally true: the main reason for the elevation of the central
hall was the presence, in this set!tion of Hyde Park, of magnificent elm trees, which
neither the Londoners nor Paxton himself wished to see felled. Incorporating them
into his giant glaBB house, as he had done earlier with the exotic plants at
Chatsworth, Paxton alm08t unconsciously-but nonetheless fundamentaUy--en­
hanced the architet!tural value of his construction." A. G. Meyer, Ei!enoouten
(EBBlingen. 1907), p. 62. (F4.2]
In opposition to the engineers and builders, Viel . as architet!t,
publishes his extremely violent, comprehensive polemic against static calculation,
under the title De l '[mpltiuo.nce de, mathemo.rique5 pour o.,ultrer la ,olidite de,
batiment5 <On the UseleBBneu of Mathematics for Assuring the Stability of Build­
ingS) (Paris, 1805). [F4.3]
The following holds good for the arcades, particularly as iron strucntres: "Their
mOSt essential component ... is the roof. Even the etymology of the word 'hall'G
points to this. It is a covered, not an enclosed space; the side walls are, so to
Interior of the Crystal Palace, London, from a photograph by William Henry Fox Talbot. See
F4.2.
speak, ' concealt:d.''' This last point pertains in a spc:cial sense: to tht:
whose walls only tht: function of partitioning tht: hall ; primarily,
thq- as walls or for tht: commucial spaces within tht:m. Tht: pas·
sage is from A. G. Mt:yer, Eisrobauten, p. 69. [F4,4)
The arcade as iron construction stands on the of horizontal oc:tension.
TItat is a decisive condition for its "old-fashioned" appearance. It displays, in this
regard, a hybrid character, ·anaIogous in certain respeas to that of the Baroque
..
church-"the vaulted 'hall' that compreht:nds tht: chapels only as an of
its own proper space, which is wider than ever before. Nevertheless, an attraction
' from on high' is also at work in this: Baroqut: hall-an upward·tending ecstasy,
such as jubilates from tht: frescoes on tht: ceiling. So long as ecclesiastical spaces
aim to be more than spaces for gathering, so long as they strive to safeguard the
idea of the t:tt:mal, they will be satisfied with nothing than an overarching
unity, in which tht: vertical tendency outweighs tht: horizontal." A. G. Meyer,
EiJarbauten, p. 74. On the other hand, it may be said that something sacral, a
vestige of the nave, still attaches to this row of commodities that is the arcadt:.
From a functional point of view, the arcadt: already the field of horizon­
tal amplitude; architecturally, however, it still stands within the conceptual field of
the old [F' ,51
The Galerie des Machines, built in 1889.
1
was torn down in 1910 " out of a rti. tic
. adism.'" [F4,6)
Histori cal extension of the horizontal: " From the palaces of the Italian High Ren­
ail8ance, the chateaux of tlle French kings take the 'gaUery,' which-as in the case
of the ' CaUery of AIKlllo' at the Louvre and the 'Gallery of Mirrors' at Versailles-­
becomes the embl em of majesty itself.... I Its new triumphal advance in the nine­
teenth century begins under the sign of the purely utilit arian structure, with those
haUs known as warehouses and market8, workshops and factories; the problem of
railroad stations and, abo!e all , of exhibitions leads it back to art . And every­
wher e the demand for continuous horizontal extension i.e .0 great that the stone
arch and the wooden ceiling can have only very limited applications.... In Gothic
structures, the wall. tllrn into the ceiling, whereas in iron hall s of the type ...
represented hy the Galler y of Machines in Paris, the ceiling slides over the walls
without interrupti on.'" A. G. Meyer, Eisenbauten. PI). 74-75. [F4a,l]
Never bcfore was the criterion of the "minimal" so important. And that includes
the mininlal e1cment of quantity: the "little," the "few." These are dimcnsions
that wcre well established in tedmological and architectural constructions long
before literature made bold to adapt them . Fundamentally, it is a question of
the earliest manifestation of the principlt: of montage. On building the Eiffel
Tower: "Thus, the plastic shaping power abdicates here in favor of a colossal
span of spiritual cnergy, which channels the inorganic material energy into the
small est, most efficicnt fonns and conjoins these fonus in the most clfeetive
manner.... Each of the twelve thousand metal fittings, each of the two and a half
million rivets, is machinw to the millimt:ter .... On this work site, one hears no
chisel-blow liberating fonn from stone; here thought reigns over musclt: power,
which it transmits via cranes and secure scaffolding." A. G. Meyer, Eisenbaulm,
p. 93. 0 Precursors 0 [F4a,2)
" Haussmann was incapable of having what could be called a policy 0 11 railroad
stations .... Despite a directive from the emperor, who justly baptized Ie. Bare.
' the !lew gateways of Paris ,' the continued development of the railroads surprised
everyone, surpaning aU expectati ons .... The habit of a certain empi.ri ci. m was
not easily overcome." Dubech and d' Espezel, Histoire de Paris (Paris. 1926),
p.419. (F4a,3)
Eiffel Tower. "Greeted at first by a storm of protest , it has remained (Iuite ugly,
though it proved useful for r ese.rc.h on wirelen te.legraphy.... It has been said
that this world exhibition marked the triumph of iron construction. It wouJd be
truer to say that it ma rked itB bankruptcy. " Dubech and d' Espezel, Histoire de
Paris, pp. 461-462. [F4a,4)
"Around 1878. it was thought that salvation lay in iron construction. Its ' yea rning
for verticality' (aa Salomon Reinach put it), the predominance of empt y spaces
over filled spaces, and the lightness of ita visible frame raised hopes that a style was
emerging in which the essence of the Gothic gewus wouJd be r evived and rejuve­
nated by a new spirit and new materials. But when engineer s erected the Galerie
des Machines and the Eiffel Tower in 1889, people de8l)aired of the art of iron.
Perhaps too soon. " Dubech and d' Espezel, Histoire de Pari. , p. 464. [F4a,5]
Reranger : " Hia sole reproach to the regime of Louis Pbilil>pe was that it put the
republic to grow in a hothouse.'" Franz Diederich, " Victor Hup;o,'" Die Delle Zeit.
20, no. 1 (Stutt gart, 1901), p . 648. [F4a,6)
" The patlt that leads from the Empire form of the firu locomotive to the fin­
ished objeetive and functional form or today marks an evolution." Joseph Aug.
Lux, " Maschineniisthetik," Die neue Zeit, 27, no. 2 (Stutt gart, 19(9), p. 439.
[F4a,7)
"Those endowed with an especiaUy fine artisti c conscience have hurl ed down,
from the alt a r of art , curse after curse on the building engineers. It suffices to
mention Ruskin." A. G. Meyer, Ei.enb(JIuen (Esslingen, 1907), p. 3. [F5,I)
Concerning the artisti c idea of Empire. On Daumi er : " He displ ayed the grea test
enthusiasm for muscul ar excitation •. Tirele88ly his pencil exalts tbe and
movement of muscles .... But tilt: public of whi ch he dreamed was proportioned
differentl y from Ihis ignoble ... 80ciely of shopkeepers. He yearnetl for a sodal
mili eu that would have provided. like that of ancient Grt!Cce, a base frum which
lJe<>ple eould rllille as frolll a Il.edestal , in beauty.... A gro­
tei>llue Ili.'l lorlioll mu! 1 ... re! lIh when Ihe bourgeoi! ie viewed from the a ngl e of
sti ch idcullJ. O:lUmicr's ca ri catu re! wcre thus the almost involunt ary conSC<luence
of II lofly UJll hitiofi Ihal in it s aim of atttlncmcni with Ihe milldle-dalJs pub­
li c.... In 1835. unullcllIpt 0 11 t he life of the king'! prel;clli ed an ... opport unit y t o
I'urluil ... Ihe of the press, whi ch had heen puhlicly blamed for the deed.
Politicil l cari cature lH!C:a me iml)oHible .... Hence, t he drawings of lawyers done
i.1I this period are ... by far the most passionate and animated. The courtroom is
the only pill ee where battles can stiLi be waged ill aU their fury, and lawyers
:1I'e the onl y lJe<>pl e in whom a n emphati call y muscul ar rhetoric and u profession­
uLl y Ilruma tic pose ha"e made for an elaborate phy@iognomy of the body." Fritz
Th. Schuhe, "' Honore Daumier,'" Die neue Zeit. 32, 110. I <1913» ,
pp.833-835. {F5,2J
The miscarriage of Ba1tard's design for Les Halles, built in 1853, is due to the
same unfortunate combination of masonry and ironwork as in the original proj­
ect for the London exhibition hall of 1851, the 'work of the Frenchman Horeau.
Parisians referred to Ba1tard's structure, which was subsequently tom down, as Ie
fort dt: fa Hallt:. {F5,3)
0 11 the CrYiOta l Palacl' , Wilh Ihe elms ill its midst : " Under these arches,
thanks to awnings, "cllti lutors, and fountains, vi si lors revel in a delicious
coolncss. In til e words of one observer : ' You might think you were under the
billows of sOllie fa bul ous ri vcr, in the crystal palace of a fairy or naiad. ,.' A. Demy,
EUrJi IliJtorillue u ur les expoJitionJ univerJeJfes de Paris (Pari s, p. 40.
[F5,4]
"After the closing of the London Exhibition in 1851, people in England won·
dered what was to become of the Crystal Palace. Although a clause inserted in
the deed of concession for the grounds required ... the demolition ... of the
building, public opinion was unanimous in asking for the abrogation of this
clause.... -The newspapers "''ere full of proposals of all kinds, many of which
were distinctly eccentric. A doctor wanted to rum the place into a hospital;
another suggested a bathing establishment. .. . One person had the idea of mak·
ing it a gigantic library. An Englishman with a violent passion for Bowers insisted
on seeing tJle whole palace become a garden." The Crystal Palace was acquired
by Francis Fuller and transferred to Sydenham. A. S. de Doncourt, Uj ExpositioTl.l
Imiuemll(j (Li Ue and Paris p. 77. Compare F6a,1. The Bourse could
rr:pmmt anything; the Crystal Palace could be ujr:d for anything. IF5a, l )
" FIIl'lIillln' making in lullll iar iroll ... rivals furnilure making ill wooIl , 111111evell
;; uqJau I's il . Jo' uruiture of slI ch iron. willI hllkell-on color, .. . ellllllleicil wilh Row­
.: rl; ur wi tll plllterll l; imil ul.ing of inl uid woo.1. is cl cgllllt and nicely turned .
li ke the tOI)Sof Boucher's gates." Edollartl Foucaud. Pliris inventeur: Physiologic
de l'indllslriejrall{rJise (Puris, 1844), pp. 92- 93. (F5a,2)
The s<luUI'c opposite Ihe Cure du Norll wall known in 1860 as the Place de
Rouba;'.:. {F5a,3]
In eugravings of the l)eriod. IlOrse& a re prancing across railroad station espla­
IHldell, and slugccoachcs roll by ill douds of dus!. {F5a,4)
Cu ption for a wOOilcul reprcsenting a catafalque in the Care du Nord: " Last
re.s l)Ct! ts puid t o Meyerbecr in Paris at the sure de chemin de fer du Nord."
[F5a,5J
Fll ctories wit h gull eries ill side and winding irOIl st aircases. Ea rl y prOSI)Ct!tu8e8 and
illustrations show production rooms and display rooms, which are often under the
same roof, fondly represented in cross-section like doLi houses. Thus a prospectus
of 1865 for the footwear coml)any Pinet. ot infrequentl y one sees ateliers , like
t.hose of photographers, with sliding shades in front of the skylight . Cabinet des
[ stumpes. {F5a,6)
The Eiffcl To"'"er : " It is charllcteristic of this most famous COll8lructioll of the
epoch that , for all its gigantic stature, ... it nevertheless feels like a knickknack,
which ... !! pcaks for the fllct t.hat the secolld*rate artistic scnsibility of the era
could think, ill gener al , only within the fnunework of genre and t he techni llue of
filigree." Egon Friedell , Killturseschichte der Nellzeit , vol. 3 (Muni ch, 1931),
p.363. {F5a,7]
" Micllel Chcvuli er sets down hi s dreams of the new templ e in a poem:
1would have YOIl see my temille, the Lord God lIIid.
The culumn& of the temple
Were strong beams;
Of hollow cast· iron ooillmns
Wu 'llf: organ of thi s new templ e.
The framework wu of irOll , of molded steel .
Of cupper ami of hronze.
The archit ect had "luced il ul,on Ihe col LImns
Like a Blri nged instrlllllent Ill)On a wOOIlwind.
Fromll,e lempl.· "an'e. moreo\'cr. al each mOlllC1i1 of t he day.
The BOUlids of a new harmony.
The sten,I"r rose lip like II lightning rod;
[t reache<11O l.h" doUll s,
arts-a view which is, unhappily, deeply rooted in him and deeply pondered."
Victor Hugo, Oeullm £ompleltJ, novels, vol. 3 (Paris, 1880), p. 5.' [F6,3j
Before the decision to build the Pa1ais de l' Industrle'Q was made, a plan had
existed to roof over a section of the Champs-E1ystes-along with its trees-in the
maJUler of the Crystal Palace.
[F6,4j
Vidor Hugo, in Not re-Dame de Pari8, on the Bourse: " If it be the rule that the
arehiteet ure of a building 8hould be adapted to itl function, ... we can hardly
wonder enough at a mOllument which might equaUy weU be a king'l palace, a house
of eommOIlS, a lown haU, a coUege, a ri ding school , all academy, a wareboUle, a
law (Jourt , a mu,eum. a barracks, a lepulcher, a templ e, or a theater. For the
present , it is a stock exchange .... It is a Slock exchange in Frallce just as it would
have been a temple in Creece.. .. We have the colonnade encircling t he monu·
ment , beneath which, on day! of high religiou! solemni t y, the theory of stockbro­
La flU fA Fureur dujour (picrure Puu1e Mania, or They're AIl the Rage These
kers and jobber! can be majestically expounded. These, for sure, are ver y stately
Days). See F6,2.
monuments. If we add to them many fine st reets, as amusing and diverse a8 the
Rue de Ri voLi , then I do not despai r but that one day a balloon's-eye view of Paris
will offer us that wealth of lines, ... that di versi t y of aspect , that 80mehow . _ .
To there electric rorce;
unexpected beauty, which characterizes a checkerboard." Victor Hugo, Oeuvre,
completel, novels, vol. 3 (Par is, 1880), PI). 206-207 (NOIre-Dame de Po rn)."
Storms have charged iI with vit ality and ten,ion.
[F6a,lj
Atthe topofthe minareu
The telegraph was wavin&iu ann' ,
Bringing rrom all paru
Good newl to the J.e<lple....
Henry-Rene D' Allemagne, 1£$ Saint-Simanieru, 1827-1837 (Paris. 1930), p. 308.
[F6,1 ]
The "Chinese puzzle," which comes into fashion during the Empire, the
century' s awakening sense for construction. The problems appear, m the
puzzJes of the period, as hatched portions of a landscape, a buildmg, Of a
are a first presentiment of the cubist principle in the plastic am. (fa
whether, in an allegorical representation in the Cabinet des Estampes, the bram­
teaser undoes the kaleidoscope or vice versa.)
[F6,2j
"Paris avol d' oiseau" (A Bird's-Eye View of Paris_Nom-Dame ck Paris, vol. I,
book 3-concludes its overview of the architectura..l history of the city with an
ironic characterization of the present day, which culminates in a description of the
architectural insignificance of the Stock Exchange. The importance of chap­
ter is underlined by a note added to the definitive edition of 1832, which says:
"The author ... enlarges, in one of these chapters, upon the CUITeIll decadence of
architecture and the now (in his view) almost inevitable demise of this king of the
TIle Paris Stock Exchange, mid-ninc:tc:enth century. Counesy or the Paris Stock. Exdmnge.
'keF",,­
The: PalaU de: I'lndustrie: at the: world exhibition of 1855. Sc:c F6a,2.
Palaia de l' lndualrie: "'One ia atruck by the elegance and lightnel8 of the iron
framework; yet the engineer, ... Monsieur Barrault , has ShOWD more skill than
taste. As for the domed gla" roof, ... it is awkwardly placed, and the idea evoked
... is ... that of a cloche: industry in a hothowe.... On each side of the
entrancc have been placed two superb locomotivell with thei r tender .... Thii la81
arrangement Ilrcli umably occasioned by the distribution of priZCII which clollCd the
u hibition 0 11 November 15, 1855. Louil Enault, " Le Palail de 1' lndU81rie," in
Pari.! et k. Pari.!iem e'll XIX' sieck (Paris, 1856), pp. 313, 315. [F6a,2]
From Viel , De 1'lmplliJlance des mathemaliques pour aSl ll rer to
.olidite des beifimenlS (11aris, 1805): Viel di slinguishell ordOl.natl ce <planning. lay·
out ) from COlIst rll CfiOIi alltl fault s the younger architects ahove aU for insufficient
knowledge of lhe former. Ult imat ely responsible is " the new direction lhat public
inl lruction in thi s uri has taken. in the wake of our political temlJel ts" (po 9). " At
for t he gt.'ollleter s who practice archi tecture, their building8--8!:! rega rds iuvention
Hlld cOll lltrUf'li oll - prOVe the nullilY of mathematics where ordonna nce alld struc·
tural stahilit y are concerll(... I" (p o 10). "The mat hematiciant ... claim to have ...
reconcil ed boldnCII8 with stability. It is only IlDder the aegis of algebra that these
tWO wor dll can meet" h). 25; it remains to be determined whether t.his last selltence
is meallt iconica ll y, or whether it distingui shes between algebra alld mathematics).
The a uthor criti cizell the POlit dll Louvre anll the Pont de la Cite (both bridgell
from 1803) in accorda nce with t he principles of Leon BaUista Alberti. [F6a,3j
According to Yael , the fi rst bridges to be built on a constructi ve basis would have
been undertaken around 1730. (F7, I ]
III 1855, the Hotel du Louvre was constructed at a rapid tempo, so as to he in place
for the opell ing of the world exhibition. " For the fi rst time, the entrepreneura u!!ed
elt:(; tric light 0 11 the site, in order to doubl e the day's labor ; some unexpected
delays occurred; the city wall just out of the famoull carpent era' str:ike,
whi ch put an end to wood·frame structures in Paris. Consequentl y, the Hotel du
Louvre ponesses the rare distinction of having wedded , in its design, the wood
paneling of old bouses to the iron flooring of modern buildings." V" G. d' Avenel,
" Le Mecanisme de la vie moderne," part I , " leI Grands Magasins," Revue <hs
deux mondes (July 15, 1894). p. 340. (F7,2)
"In the beginning, railroad cart look like stagccoachell, autohuses like omnibuses,
electric lights like gas chandeliers, and the last like pet roleum lamplI." Leon
Pier re·Quint, "Significatioll du cinema," L'Art cinematographique, 2 (Parill,
1927), p. 7. [F7,3]
Apropos of the Empire st yle of Schinkel: "The building that brings out the 10-­
cation, the substructure that emhodiell the true seat of invention, ... these
things r esemble-a vehi cle. They convey architectural ideals, which onl y in thia
sort of way call stiU he ' practiced.·., Carl Unfert, " Vom Ursprung grosser
Baugedanken," Prankfurter Zeituns . J anuary 9, 1936. [F7,4)
On the 'world exhibition of 1889: " We can say of thii festivit y that it ball been
celebrated, above aU, to the glory of iron .... Having undertaken to give readert
of Le Correspondant a rough idea of industry in connection witb the Exposition du
Champ de Mars . we have chOllen for our thenle ' Metal Structurell and Railroadt. ,,,
Alliert de Lapparellt , Le dufer (Paris, 1890), pp. vii- viii. [F7,5]
0 11 the Cr ystal Palace: "The archi tect , Paxton, and the contractors, Messrs. Fox
alltl had systematicaUy resolved not to use parts with large dimCII ·
sioll s. The heaviellt were hollow cast· irOIl gi rders, eight meters long, nOll e of which
weighed more than a 1011 ••.. Thei r chicf meril was that they were ecollomical....
Moreover, the executi on of the pl an was remarkahl y rapill, sill ce all the partl were
IJf a sorl that t he factori es I;ould ullli ertake to deliver qui ckly." Albert de Lappar­
ent , Le Sieck dufer 1890). p. 59. [F7,6]
Lappaccllt divides iron structures inlU two duues: iroll structures with Slone
facings and true iron He IIlaCCII the followillg example among lhe flr'll t
1I0rt . "Labrouste ...• in 1868•... gave 10 the puhlic the readi ng room of the
-
8lbliotheque Nationale.... It is diffi cuh to imagine anything more satill fying or
more harmonious than this great chantller of 1, 156 '((UIUe met er" with its nine
fretted CUIH>liUl , incorporating a relles of iron lattice Ilnd resting 011 sixteen li ght
cast-iron colunlPs, twelve of whi ch are lIel agai nst the walls , while (our, cOlllpletely
free-standing, rise from the floor on pedestals of the same metal. " Albert de La,)­
parenl, Le Swck diller (Pans. 1890), Pil . 56-57. [F7a,1]
The engineer Alexis BarrawI , who with Viel built the Palace of Industry in 1855.
W88 a brother of Emile Barrauh. (F7a,2)
In 1779, the first call-iron bridge (that of Coalhrookdale). In 1788, iu builderl!
was awarded the Gold Medal of the English Society of Am. " Since it was in 1790,
furthermore, that the architec:t Louis completed the wrought-iron framework for
the Theitre in Paris, we may say that the centenary of metal construction
coincides almost exactly with that of the French Revolution." A. de Lapparent, Le
Siecle dufer{Paris, 1890), pp. 11- 12. [F7a,3)
Paria, in IS22: a " w(H){jwork 8trike."
(F'7a,4]
On the 8ubj ec:t of the Chinese punic, a lithograph: The Triumph of the Kaleido­
scope, or the Demue ofthe Chinese Game. A reclining Chine8e man with a brain­
teaser 8pread out on the ground before him. On hi s shoulder, a female figure bas
planted her foot. In one hand, Ihe carriea a kaleidoscope; in the other, a paper or
a IcroU with kaleidoscope patterns. Cabinet del Estampes (da ted ISIS). [F7a,5]
"The head turn8 a nd the heart tighten8 when , for the first time, we vi8it tholc fairy
hall8 where pollihed iron and dazzling copper seem to move and think by them­
selves, while pale and feeble man i8 only the humble servant oftho8e 81eeI9antt ."
J . Michelet, Le Peuple (Paris, 1846), p. 82. The author in no way fears that me­
chanical production wiU gain the upper hand over human beings. The individual­
i8m of the consumer I!eeID.8 to him to spea k against tillS: each " man now ... wantl
to be himseH. Consequentl y, he will oft en care leal for products fabricated by
cianCI, without any individuality thai speaks to his own" (ibill ., p. 78).13 (F'7a,6]
" Viollct -Ie-Duc ( ISI4-1879) shows that the a rchit ectl of the Middle Agel were also
engineers and r ellOurceful inventors." Amedee Ozenfant . " La Peinture murale,"
vol. 16. Art! Cl lilleralllres da/II ta sociere COlltcmpo­
rainc, part I , p . 70. coluUlII 3. (F8,I]
Protest against the Eierel Tower: "We come. as writ ers . paillleu. sculluors, archi ­
tects , . .. in the lI a lne of French art and Frellch hi story, hot h of which are thrcllt ­
cned, ... to protest against tilt: constructi on. in the very heart of our capital , of
the usclell and Eiffel Tower .... Its barharOUI ol'erwIJdms
Notre-Dame, the Saint e-Chapell c, the Tower of Sllint -Jll cques. AJI our monuments
•
Le 1"riQ1//pht du !J.aliidoscOPtJou Le 1"omhtau du}eu chinois (The
Triumph of the Kaleidoscope, or The Demise of the Chinese
Game), 1818. Counesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
See F7a,5.
are dehased, our archit ecture diminished." Ci ted in Louis CherollDet . " lei Troil
Grand-meres de I'eltpositioll ," Vcmiredi, April 30, 1937. (F8,2]
Supposedly then: were trees within Mill ard's " 1.l a nnony Hall ," on the Boulevard
MOntmartre. (F8,3J
" It was in 1783. in til e COll struction of the Theatre Fram;nis, that iron was em­
" Io)'cd for the first lime on a large scale, by the architect Lollil. Never perhaps.
hus a work so audacious heen attempted. in 1900, the theater was rehuilt in
the aftermat h of a fire, it was with a weight of iron one hundred times greater tban
that whi ch the architect Louis hUll IUletl for the same tru8swork. COllstruction ill
irou has providell a of buildings, of which the great reading room of the
Bihliothalue Nationale !ly LabrOUl tc was til e first , and olle of the most success­
ful. . .. But iron retluires costly maintenance . ... The world exhibition of 1889
lII ar ked the triulllph of exposed ironwork .. . ; at the exhibition of 1900, nearl y all
the iron frallles were covered ",;th plasterwork." vol.
16, 16-68, pp. 6-7 (Auguste Perret, " Les Resoins collectiCs et r archit ecture").
[Fa., ]
The " tri ulllpl, of exposed ironwork" ill the age of the gellre: " It may be . .. the ...
for lII achili e techll ology and the faith in the superior durabilit y of its
matcri als that explains why the altribute ' iron' is used ... whenever ... power
and ncccssity are supposed to be manifest. Iron are the laws of nature, and iron is
the 'str idc of the worker batt alion'; the ... uni on of the German empire is suppos­
cill y made of iron, aud so is ... the chancell or himself." Dolf Sternberger, Pano­
ramo (Hamhurg, 1938) , p. 31. [F8,S)
The iron balcony. "In its most rigor ous form, the house has a uniform fa{ade ....
Ar ticul ati on result s only from doors and windows. In France, the window is,
wi thoul exception, even ill the poorest house, a porte{enet re, a ' French wi ndow'
0IHl lung to the fl oor .. . . Thi s makes a railing ll ocessar Yi in the poor er houses it is
a plain iron bar, but ill the wealthier houses it is of wrought iron .... At a cerlain
stage , the railing becomes all ornament. ... It further COlltributes to the arti cul a­
tion of the fa .. ade by ... accenting the lower line of the window. And it fulfills both
functions without brea king the plane of the fa ..ade. For the great archit ectural
mass of the modern house, wi th its insistent lateral extension, this arti cul ati on
could not possibl y suffice. The ar chitects' building-sense demanded that the ever
stronger horizont al tendency of the house ... he given expression.... And they
di scovered the means for this ill the traditi onal iron grille. Across the enti re lengt h
of the buildi ng front, on oll e or two stories, they set a balcony provided with an
iron grat ing of this type, whi ch, being black, stands out very distinctl y and makes
a vigoroll s impression. These haiconies, .. . up to the most recent period of build­
ing, ""cl·e kept very narrow; and if throngh them the severit y of the surface is
overcome, what call he call ed the relicf of the fa .. ade remains nonetheless quite
flat , over coming the effect of the wall as little as docs the scul pted or nament ation,
li kewise kept fl at . In the case of adjoining houses, these balcony railillg8 fuse )¥ith
one another all tl cousolidate the impression of a wall etl streeti and thi s effect is
height ened by the fact that , wherever the upper stories are used for commercial
pur poses, the proprietors put "I' ... not signhoa nls but matched giltled letters in
roman 81yle, ""hich, when well spaced across the ironwork, appear purel y decor a­
tive." Fri tz Stahl , Paris (Berlin ( 1929)), pp. 18-19. [F8a)
G
[Exhibitions, Advertising, Grandville 1
Yes, when all the world from Paris to China
Pays heed to your doctrinc, 0 divine Saint-Simon,
The glorious Golden Age will be reborn.
Rivers will Bow with dlocolate and tea,
Sheep roasled whole will frisk on the plain,
And pike will swim in the Seine.
Fricasseed spinach will grow on the ground,
Garnished with aushed fried croutons;
The trees will bring forth apple compoles,
And farmers will harvesl boots and coats.
It will SIIOW wine, it will rain chickens,
And ducks cooked with turnips will fall from the sky.
- Ferdinand Langit and Emile Va.nderburch, Lluis-Bronu tl It Saint-
Simtmien: Parodit tk Louis Xl du Palais-Royal, Febnwy 27,
1832), cited in Thtodore Muree, L'Histqjf( par It IMom, 1789- 1851
(Pam, 1865), voJ. 3, p. 191
Music such as one gets to hear all the pianofones of Satum's
ring.
- Hector Berlioz, A traun-J chants, authorized German edition pre·
pared by Richard FbhJ (Ldpl.ig, 1864), p. 104 ("Beethoven im Ring
da
From a European perspective, things looked this way: In all areas of production,
the Middle Ages lIntil the beginning of the nineteenth century, the develop­
ment of technology proceeded at a much slower rate than the developmCflt of art.
Art could take its time in variollsly assimilating the technological modes of
operation. But the transfomlation of things that set in around 1800 dictated the
tempo to an, and the more breathtaking this tempo became, the morc readily the
dominion of fashion overspread all fields. Fmally, we arrive at the present state of
things: the possihiliry now arises that an will no longer find time to adapt some­
how to teclmological processes. TIle advertisement is the ruse by whicll the
dream forces itself on industry. [G 1,1)
Wit.hin the frames of the pictures that hung on dining room walls, the advent of
whiskey advcrusements, of Van Houten cocoa, of Amieux canned food is her­
alded. Naturally, one ean say that the bourgeois comfort of the dining room has
survived longest in small cafes and other such places; but perhaps one can also
say that the space of the cafe, wit.hin which every square meter and every hour
are paid for more punctually than in apamnent houses, evolved out of the latter.
The apartment from which a caU was made is a pictuTe puzzle (Vixierbild> with
the caption: Where is the capital hiding? [G I ,2)
Grandville' s ,\-'Orks are the sibylline books of pu6iicili. Everything that, with him,
has its preliminary foml as joke, or satire, attains its true unfolding as adver·
tisement. [GI ,3)
HamlLilI of a Pari!!ian textil es denier from the 1830s: " Ladies nnd Gentlemen: I I
ask you to cas' an indul gent eye on t he following observation!!; my de8ire to con­
tribute to your eternal salvation impels me to address you. Allow me to di r ect your
att ention to the study of the Holy Scripture8, as weU as to the extremely moderate
prices whi ch I have bl..'t:n the first to introduce into the field of ho!!.ier y, cotton
gootl s. and rc.lated products. No. 13, Rue Pave-Saint-Sauveur." Eduard Kroloff,
Schilclerllllgell all..!' Pelr;, (Hamburg, 1839), vol. 2, pp. 50-51. [GI ,4)
Superposition and adver ti sing: " In the Palai8-Royal, not long ago, between the
011 t he upper story, I hapl.ene.1 to see a life-sized oil painting repre­
8t:ll ljng, in very li\'e1y colors, a French general in fuU-d reu uniform. I take out my
spectacles to examiJl e more cl08ely the historical subj ect of the picture. and my
general is sitting in an armchair holding out a bare foot: the podiatrist , kneeling
before him, excises the corns ." J . F. Reichnrt.h, Vertraute Briefe all.! Paris (Ham­
burg. 1805), vol. I, p. 178. [GI ,S)
In 1861 , the first lithographic poster suddenly appeared on walls hcre and there
around London. It showed the back of a woman in white who was thickly
wrapped in a shawl and who, in all haste, had just reached the top of a Sight of
stairs, where, her head half turned and a finger upon her lips, she is ever so
slightly opening a heavy door, through which one glimpses the starry sky. In this
way Wtlkie Collins advertised his latest book, one of the greatest detective novels
ever writtcn: The Woman in White. See Talmeyr, iA. Citt du Jang (Paris, 1901),
pp.263-264. IGI .61
It is significant that Jugcndstil failed in interior design, and soon aftcrward ill
architecture too, whereas in the street, with the poster, it often found vcry suc·
cessful solutions. TIus is fully confimlcd in Behne's disceming critique: "By no
mcans was Jugclldstil ridiculous in its original intentions. It was lookin.g for
renewal because it clcarly recognizcd the peculiar contradictions arising bctween
imitation Renaissance art and new methods of production deternlined by the
machine. But it gr.ldually became ridiculous because it believed that it could
resolve the enonnOliS objective tensions fonnally, 011 paper, in the studio." 0 In·
terior 0 Adolf Behne, NeUf!J Wohnen-Neua &uen (Leipzig, 1927), p. 15. Of
course in the end, the law according to which an action brings about an opposite
holds true for Jugendstil. 111(:: genuine liberation from an cpoch, that is,
has the structure of awakening in this respect as well: it is entirely ruled by
cunning. Only with cunning, not without it, can we work free of thc of
dream. But there is also a false liberation; its sign is violence. From the beguuung,
it condemned Jugcndstil to failure. 0 Dream Structure 0 [G t ,7)
I1fficnnost, decisive significance of the advertisement: "Good posters exist ...
onl y in the domain of trifles, of industry, or of Talmeyr,
Citi du Jang (Paris, 1901), p. 2n. The sanle thought With which the bourgeoIS
here detects the tendency of advertising in its early period: "In short, the moral of
the postcr has nothing to do with its art, and its art nothing to do with the moral,
and this defines the character of the poster" (ibid., p. 275). [GI ,S)
J ust as certain modes of presentation- genre scenes and the in the
coursc of the nineteenth ccntury, to "cross over" into advertising, so also mto the
realm of the obscene. The Nazarene style and the Makart style have their black
and their <olored lithographic cousins in the field of obscene graphics. I saw a
plate that, at first glance, could have passed as something like Siegfried's bath in
dragon blood: green sylvan solitude, crimson mantle of the hcro, naked .flesh, a
sheet of water-it was the most complicated embrace of three human bodies, and
it looked like the frontispiece of an inexpensive book for young people. This is
the language of color characteristic of the posters that fl ourished in the arcades.
When we hear that portraits of famous cancan dancers like Ri golette and
Fricheue would have hung there, we have to imagine them colored like this.
Falser colors are possible in the arcades; that combs are red and green surprises
no one. Snow White' s stepmother had such things, and when thc comb did not
do its work, the beautiful apple was there to help out-half red, half poison­
green, like cheap combs. Everywhere gloves play a staffing role, colored ones,
but above all the long black variety on which SO many, follo\ving Yvette Guilbert,
have placed their hopes for happiness, and which will bring some, let us hope, to
Margo Lion. And laid out on a side table in a tavern, stockings make for an
cthereal meat counter. [Gla, t]
The writings of lhc Surrealists treat words like trade names, and their texts are:at
bottom, a fornl of prospectus for entcrprises not yct off the ground. Nesung
today in trade nanles arc figments such as those carlier lhought to be hidden in
the cache of "poctic" vocables. [Gla,2)
In 1867, a wallpapcr tl calcl· pul up hi s 011 the ofbritlges . [Gl a,3)
Many years ago, on the streetcar, I saw a poster that, if thi.ngs had their due in this
world, would have found its admirers, historians, exegetes, and copyists as
surely as any great poem or painting. And, in fact, it was both at the sallle wne.
As is sometimes the case with very deep, unexpected impressions, however, the
shock was too violent: the impression, if I may say so, struck with such force that
it broke through the bottom of my consciousness and for years lay irrecoverable
somewhere in the darkness. I knew only that it had to do with "Bullrich Salt" and
that the ongina] watthouse for this seasoning was a small cellar on Flotrn't:ll
for years I had circumvented the temptation to get out at this point
and mqwn:= about the poster. There I traveled on a colorless Sunday afternoon in
that northern Moabit, a part of town that had already once appeared to me as
though built by ghostly hands for just this time of day. lbat was when, four years
I had come to Uitzow Sbttt to pay customs duty, according to the weight of
Its enameled blocks of houses, on a china porcelain city which I had had sent
from Rome. There wen: omens then along the way to signal the approach of a
momentous afternoon. And, in fact, it ended with the story of the discovery of an
arcade, a story that is too herfinisd, to be told just now in this Parisian space of
remembrance. Prior to this incident, however, I stood with my twO beautiful
companions in front of a miserable cafe, whose window display was enlivened by
an arrangement of signboards. On one of these was the legend "Bullrich Sale" It
contained nothing else besides the words; but around these written characters
there was suddenly and effortlessly configured that desert landscape of the
poster. I had it once more. Here is what it looked like. In the foreground, a
horse-drawn wagon was advancing across the desen. It was loaded with sacks
bearing the words uBullrich Salt." One of these sacks had a hole, from which salt
had already trickled a good distance on the ground. In the background of the
desen landscape, two posts held a large sign with the words "Is the Best." But
what about the trace of salt down the desen trail? It fonned letters, and these
letters fonned a word, the word "Bullrich Salt." Was not the preestablished
hannony of a Leibniz mere child' s play compared to this tightly orchestrated
predestination in the desen? And didn't that poster furnish an in1.3ge for things
that no one in this mortal life has yet experienced? An image of the everyday in
Utopia? (Cl a,4)
"The store known as La Chaussee had recently atulouuced its new
inventory of yard goods. Over two million meters of barege, over five million of
grenadine and poplin, and over three million of other fabrics- altogelher about
eleven million meters of textiles. Le lInlama"e now remarked, after recolllllend·
ing La Chaussee d'Antin to its female readers as the 'foremost house of fashion in
the world,' and also the ' most dependable' : 'The entire French railway system
comprises barely ten thousand kilometers of tracks- that is, only ten million
meters.1llis OTl e store, therefore, with its stock of tcxtiles, could virtually stret ch a
tent over all the railroad tracks of France, "which, especially in the heat of
summer, would be very pleasant.'" 'Tbree or four other establishments of this
kind publish similar figures, so that, with all these materials combined, one could
place not on.ly Paris ... but the whole dipar/emm/ of the Seine under a massive
canopy, ' which likewise would be welcome in rainy weather.' But we calU10t help
asking: How are stores supposed to find room to stock this gigantic quantity of
goods? The answer is very simple and, what is more, very logical : each firm is
always larger than the others.
"You hear it said: 'La Ville de Paris, the largest store in the capital,' 'Les Villes
de France, the largest store in the Empire; 'La Chaussee d'Antin, the largest store
in Europe,' ' Le Coin de Rue, the largest store in the 'A-'Orld.'-'In the world' : that
is to say, on the enure earth there is none larger; you'd think that would be the
limit. But no: Les Magasins du LoUVTe have not been named, and they bear the
tille 'The largest Stores in The. universe! Including Sirius appar_
ently, and n1.3ybe even the disappeanng twUl stars' of which Alexander von
Humboldt speaks in his Kosmos. "I
Here we see the cOtulection between capitalism' s evolving commercial adver­
tising and the work of Grandville.
.Adolf Ebeling,) Lehauk Bilder aUJ dm modnnm Paris, 4 voIs. (Cologne, 1863­
1866), vol. 2, pp. 292- 294. [G"l)
"Now then, you princes and sovereign states, resolve to pool your riches, your
resources, your energies in order to ignite, as we do our gas jets, long-extinct
volcanoes [whose craters, though filled with snow, are spewing torrents of inBam­
mabie hydrogen]; high cylindrical towers would be necessary to conduct the hot
springs of Europe into the air, from which-so long as care is taken to avoid any
premature contact with cooling waters-they will tumble down in cascades [and
wann th.e atmosphere]. Artificial concave mirrors, arranged in a semi­
circle on mountaIntops to reflect the rays of the sun, would suitably augment the
tendency of these springs to heat the air." F. v. Brandenburg, VIC/oria! EiN neue
Well! Freudaloller AUJrufin Baugdaral!£ daRarif urIJmn PIaN/m, hmmtim ariftkr
UTU hewonnlm niirdlickn Halhl1ugel tiN fatale 'TemperaJur-Yeriindnung hinsidzt.
lien tkr Ymnehnmg tkr almosphiiriscnen mime eingetrdm isl,' 2nd expanded ed.
(Berlin, 1835) <pp. 4-5>. 0 Gas 0
1l:tis fanatasy of an insane mind effectively constitutes, under the influence of
the new invention, an advertisement for gas lighting-an advertisement in the
comic-cosmic style of Grandville. In general, the close cOtulection between adver­
tising and lhe cosmic awaits analysis. (G2,2)
regions and indeed, retrospectively, all times. From farming and
m.mmg, from mdustry and from the machines that were displayed in operation,
to raw materials and processed materials, to art and the applied arts. In all these
we see a peculiar demand for premature synthesis, of a kind that is characteristic
of the nineteenth century in other areas as """eU: think of the total work of art.
from indubitably utilitarian motives, the century wanted to generate a
VlSlon of the human cosmos, as launched in a new movement." Sigfried Giedion,
Bauen in FraTlR reich <Leipzig and Berlin, 1928), p. 37. But these syn­
theses" also bespeak a persistent endeavor to close up the space of existence and
of development. To the "airing'Out of the classes." (C2,3)
Apropoll of the exhibiti on of 1867, organized according to IItatilltieai principlell:
"To take a turn ahout thill place. circula r like the equator, ill literall y to travel
aroulul the world , for all mltions have come here; enemi es are coexisting in peace.
just as, at the origin of things, the di vi ne 8pirit Wil l hovering over the or" of til e
wat ers, so now it Il overs over this or" of iron." L'Exposition UlI.jV/u·selle cle 1867
illUMree: PubliClJtion internfltiollale alltorisee IJa r lu commission vol.
2. 1).322 (ci ted in Giedi oll , <Ba/lt1l in FranAreidr, >p. 41 ). (C2,4)
In connl..-.: tion with t.he exhibition of 1867. On Offenhach. " For the past ten years,
thi s verve of the comi c author and thi s j oyous illSI)iration of t.he composer have
bee.n vying with each other for fantastic and serendipit ous dfects; but onl y in
1867, the year of the Universal Exposition, did they alt ain the height of hil arity,
the ultimate expression of thei r exuberance.
3
The success of thi s theat er company,
already so great, hecame deli riou&--something or whi ch our pett y vi ctoriee of
today ca n furnish 110 idea. Paris, that summer, euffered sunstroke." From the
SIHlech berore the Academic Fran-;:aise by Henri Lavedan, December 3] , 1899 (on
the election of Meilhac). [C2a, I)
Advertising is emancipated in Jugendstil. J ugendstil posters are "large, always
figurative, refined in their colors but not gaudy; they show balls, night clubs,
movie theaters. TIley are made for a frothy life-a life with which the sensual
rurves ofJ ugendstil are '....e11 matched." Fran/rfurter <e£/ung, signed F. L. On an
exhibition of posters in Mannheim in 192Z 0 Dream Consciousness 0 [G2a,2)
The first London exhibiti on bring! together industri es rrom around the world.
Foll owing this, the South Kensington museum is founded. Second world exhibition
in 1862, Iike"" i8e in Loudon. With the Munich exhibition or 1875, the German
Renaissance style comes into fashion. (G2a,3)
Wiertz on the occa8ion of a world exhibition: " What 8trikes one at first is not at aU
the things people are maki ng today Lut the thing! they will be making in the future.
I The hUlnan spirit begi ll s to accustom itself to the power of matt er." A. j . Wiertz,
Oeuvres fiueraires (Paris, 1870), p. 374. (C2a,4)
Talmeyr caUs the poster " the art or Gomorrah." La Ci te dll sang (Pari s, 19(1),
p. 286. 0 jugelld8til 0 (G2a,5)
Industrial exhibitions as secret blueprint for museums. Art: industrial products
projected into the past. [G2a, 6)
J oseph Nash paimed a series of watercolors for the king of England showing the
Crystal Palace, the edifice built expressly for London' s industrial exhibition in
1851. The first world exhibition and the first monumental structure in glass and
iron! From these watercolors, one sees with amazement how the exhibitors took
pains to decorate the colossal interior in an oricntal·fairy·taIe sty le, and how­
alongside:: the assonment of goods that filled the arcaded walks- bronze monu'
ments, marble statues, and bubbling fountains populated the giant halls. 0 Iron
oInterior 0 IG2a,7)
The design for the CryStal Palace is byJ oseph Paxton, chief gardener to the duke
of Devonshire, for whom he had built a conselVatory (greenhouse) of glass and
iron at Chatsworth House. His design provided for fireproofing, plenry of light,
and the possibility of speedy and inexpensive assembly, and it prevailed over
those of the London Building Committee, whose competition was held in
[G2a,8j
"Yes, long live the bl..'Cr of Vicnna! Is it nati ve to thi s lanti that produces it? In
truth, I do 1I 0t know. But or one thing, there can be no doubt: it is a refined and
comforting brew. It is not like the beer of Str88bourg ... or Bavaria.... It is
di vine beer, ... clear as the thought of a poet, light as a 8wallow in flight , robust
alld alcohol-charged as the pcll of a German philosopher. It is di gested like the
purest wa ter, and it refreshes like ambrosia. " Adverti sement for Fant a Beer of
Vienna. No.4, Rue Halevy, near the Nouvel Opera, ' ew Year 's 1866. Almanach
indiealellr parisien (Paris, 1866), p. 13. [G2a,9)
"Anot her new word: to recto",e (advertisement ). W"t11 it make a rortune?" Nadar,
Quandj'etais photographe (Paris <190(h), I)' 309. IG2a,l Oj
Between the February Revolution and the june Insurrecti on: "All the waUs were
co\'ered with revolutionar y postere whi ch, some years later, Alfred Oelvau re­
pri nt ed in two thi ck volumes under the title Les Murailles revoiutionnaires, so
that today we can still get some idea of thi s remarkable poster litera ture. There
was scarcely a palace or a church on which these notices could not be seen. Never
before was such a mult itude of placa rds on view in any cit y. Even the government
made use of this medium to publish its decr ees and I)roclamations, while thou·
sa nds of.other people resorted to tlffiches in order to air thcir views publicly on all
IJOssihle questi ons. As the time ror the opening or the Nat ional Assembly drew
near, the language of the posters grew ",i ider and more passionate .... The num­
ber of public cri er s increased every day; t1lOusands and thousands of Parisians,
who had nothing else to do, became news vendors." Sigmund Englander.
Cescllich' e der frcmzosischen Arbeiter· AS$ociationen (Hamburg, 18M), vol. 2,
pp.279-280. IG3,I)
"A short merry piece that is customuril y jl l'e8cnt cd hcre before the pufonnance of
a !lew play: Uflrkflllj" flffacheur dlarl et:luin the Bill-Sti cken. In one {Iuite funny
alld c1larmill g scene. a pOSler ror the comedy is st uck 0 11 Columbine's house." j . F.
Hei chanlt , Ver/rflute Briefe fillS Paris (Hamllllrg. 1805). vol. 1, p. '1S7. (G3,2)
"These tl aye. a gootlmany houses in Paris apIH:a r 10 be decoralec.1 i.n the style or
Harlequin', costume; 1 mean a patchwork of large green, yellow, [a word ill egi ble]
and pink pieces of paper. The bill-sti ckers wrangl e over the wall8 anti come to
hlows over Q st reet corncr. Til e beSI of il is Ill al aU Illese poslers cover one anolher
up alleaSI len timCll a day"· Etluard Krol off, SciJiJIlerlHl8fm (illS Paris ( Ha mhurg,
1839), vol. 2, p. 57. [G3,3)
" I' aul Sirlludin, born in 1814, has In.:cn active in til e theat er since 1835; he has
suppl ement ed this acti vi t y wi th practical efforu in the fi eld of confectionery. The
re"u!ti of these efforts beckon no ieu teillptingi y from tile large displ Qy window in
the Rue de la Paix than the sugar almonds, bonboll s, honey cakes, a nd sweet
crackcr8 offered to the publi c ill the form of oll e-act dramati c at the
Palais-Royal. " Rudolf Gott schall, " 0 88 Theater und OramQ des Second Empire,"
in U,uere Zei, ; Deutsche Revue-iUolla,uchrif, Z Uni COIJ vers(j,ioIJslexicolJ
(Leipzig, 1867), p. 933. IG3,4]
From COPPt.'e', speech to the Academi e Frall-.:aise (" Response to Heredi a," May
30, 1895) , it can be inferred that a stra nge sort of writtell image could foml erly be
seell in Pa ris: "'Calligraphic masterpiec:es which, in the old days, were exhibited 011
every st rootcorner, alll.l in whi ch we could admire the portrait of Beranger or ' The
Taking of the Bastill e' in the form of pa ra phs" <p. 46). [G3,S)
Lc: Charivari of 1836 has an ill ustration showing a poster mat covers half a
housefroll t. The windows are left uncovued, except for one, it seems. Out of
that a man is leaning while cutting away the obstructing piece of paper.
IG3,']
" EIi8enCe d' Amazill y. fragrall ce and antiseptic; hygieni c toiletries from DUIJrat
alld Coml)any." " If we have named our essence after the daught er of a cacique , it
is only to indi cate t.hat the veget al ingredi ents to whi ch t his distillation owes its
surprising effectivene88 come from the same torrid cl imate as she does. The term
'anti septic' belongs t o the lexicon of sci ence, and we use it only to point out that,
apart from the iucollll'a rable benefits Ollr product offers to ladit.'fI. it possesses
hygieni c vi rtues calcul a ted to will the confidence of aU t hose wilJilig to be convinced
of its salut ary action. For if our lotion, Ilulike the wa ter s of tbe .' ountain of Youth.
has no power to wash away the acculIlulat ed year s, a t least it docs ha ve, in addi ­
ti on t o other merits, the inestimabl e IIdvantage (we believe) of r est ori ng t o the full
extent of its former radiance the lost maj esty of tha i consummate entit y, that
masterpi ece of Creati on whi ch, wi th the elegall ce, purit y, and grace of its forms,
makes up the lovel ier half of huma nit y. Without the providenti al Stll ){.' r vt.' ntion of
our di scovery, thi s most brilliant ami del icate ornament- resembl ing, in lhe ten­
der charms of it s mysterious structul·e, a fragi le blossom Ihat v.'ilts althe first hanl
rain- would enjoy, at belt , hut a fugi ti ve splendor, aft er the falling of which it
mmt 111.'t.'ds langui sh lIIuler the ruinous cloud of illness. the fa ti gui ng dClll amls of
nursing. or the 110 Ic!! injuri oU!! clllbruce uf the pitiless corset. Develope!l , a btlvc
aU, in ti m int ereSIS of Indi cs, our Essell ce i1'Amazill y ulIswcrs ttl the mO$t e)(acling
ami IIIOst intimate re{luiremelits of their toilell e. It thullk! to a happy
infusion, all that is necessary to revive, fos ter, ami enhance nat ural all ract.iolls,
".·ithout t he slight cst detriment ." <Cit etl in > Cha rles SimOIllI , f'nris de 1800 ii. 1900
( Pa ris. 1900), vol. 2, p. 5 10 (" Une Reclll lll e lie parfulII("ur CII 1857'"). [G3a, I)
"Gravely, 11u- sandwich-nllill hears hi s duuble burdcll , li ght li S it is. A young lady
whose ,·utlilltlit y is only tcmporary smiles 1.1 1the walking poster, yet wishes to read
it C\'en as she smiles. The Il appy author of her a bdominal sali ence likewise bears a
hurtlt' li of hi s own." <The hushand has hi s wife 0 11 hi s r ight arm and a large box
under hi s Icfl. Along wi th four other people, they arc clustered around a sand_
wich-lII l1 11 H.'t! n from the back. > Te)(t IIccompllll yiug a lithograph entitled
" L' Homme-affiche sur la Place des Vi ctoircs," from Nouveaux Tableallx de Paris.
tcxt to pi ute 63 (the lithogra phs a re hy Ma rlel ]. This hook is a sort of l:I ogarth ad
US IIIII Dell1l1ini. [G3a.2]
Beginning of Alfred Oelva u's preface to Les Alurailles reuo/ut.iollflClires: " These
revol uti onary placards-at the bottom of whi ch we set our obscure name-form
an immense and unique composition, one \'Iithout precedent , we believe, in the
hi story of hooks. They are a collective work. The author is Monsieur Everyone-­
Mei n Herr Omnes, as Lut her says." Les Murailles revolu';ollflUires de 1848, 16th
ed. ( Puris <1852» , vol . I , p. I . [G3a,3]
"'When, in 1798, under the Direc:: tory, the idea ofpuhlic exhihiti ons was inaugu­
ra ted on t he Champ de Mars, there were 110 exhibitors, of whom twent y-five wer e
awanl cd medals." Patais ele J'lndlUltrie (di stribut ed by H. Pion). [G4,1]
" Begillning in 180I , the products of newl y emergi ng indust ries were exhibited in
the courl yard of the Lollne." Lucien Oubech and Pierre d' Espezel , lIistoire de
Pari$ (1'"oIris, 1926), p. 335. [G4,2}
"E\'ery five years-in 1834, 1839, and 1844--t he products of industry are exhib­
it ed in Marigny S(lua re." Oubech and d'EslH!zel , His,oire de Paris , p. 389.
IG4,3]
"The fi r8t e)( hibition dili es hack to ] 798; set up 0 11 the Chump de Mars, it was ...
3n e)( hihil ion of Ihe products of French industry a nd was concei ved hy Frllm;ois de
Neufehii teau. There were t hree national exhihitions under the .: mpire (in 1801,
1802. "01 1111 1806), the first two in the eourl yard of the Louvre, the third at the
Im'alide8. There were three during the Heslorati on (in 18 19, 1823. und 1827), aU
allhe l.Quvrc ; three during the July Monurchy (in 1834. 1839, allli 1844), on the
Place {Ie la COll corde a nd tlw a nd olle UllIl er the Second Repuh­
lic. in 1849. Tll en . foll owinr; the exampl e of EngIalll l , \\' hi ch had orga ni zed 1111
illl rrnati oll al exhibiti on in 1851, IrnlJC!r iul .' ra nce held world exhih iti ons on the
Champ {Ie Mars ill 1855 11 1111 1867. The first saw the hirlh of the Pulais de J' lndus­
tri e. dcmoli shed tluring the It epublic; the second WII S u delirious festi v.ll.l marki ng
the hi gh point of the Second Empire. In 1l178, a new exhibiti on was orga ni zed 10
attCll t 10 rebirth after defeal ; il was hel d on t he Champ de Mars in It temporary
palace erected by Formige. It is characteristic of these enormous fai rs to be
ephemeral , yet each of them has It-ft its trace ill Paris. T il e exhi.bilion of 1878 was
for the Trocadero. tha t eccentri c palace cllIPI}Cd down 011 I.he tOI) or
Chaill ol hy Davioud anti Bourdais. and also for the root bridge at Passy, buih t o
n:l' lace the Pont d'iena , which WIl S no longer usable. The cxhihition of 1889 left
l}Chilld the Galeri e de. Machines, which was e" entuall y torn down, ahhough the
Eifre! Tower stiU sta nds." Dubech and d'Espezel , lIiMoire de I'uri, (I"ris, 1926),
p. 46 1. [G4.4]
'''Europe is off to vi ew the mer chandise,' said Renan--contemptuously-of the
1855 exhibition. " Paul Morand, 1900 (Paris, 193 1), p. 71 . (G4,5]
"'This yea r has been lost for propagandll ,' says a socialist ora tor a t the congress of
1900." Paul Morand, 1900 (Paris, 193 1), p. 129. [G4,6]
" In 1798, a univer sal exposition of indust ry was an nounced ; it was to t ake place
... on Ihe Champ de Mars. The Directory had charged the minisler or the interi or,
de Neufchateau. with orga ni zing a nat ional resti val to commemorate the
founding of the Republic. The mini ster had confern:d with several people, who
proposed holding cont ests and games, Uke climbing. One person
gested I.hat a great ma rket be set up after the fashi oll of country fairs , but on a
larger scale. Finall y, it was prol)Osed that all exhibition of paintings be incl uded.
These last two suggestions ga ve de Neufchateau the idea of presenting an
exhibiti on of industry in celebration of the nati onal festival. Thus. the first indus­
trial exposition is born from the wish to amuse the working classes, and it become.
for them a festival of emancipat ion .... The increasingl y popular char acter of
industry starts t o become evident. ... Silk fabri u are repl aced by woolens, and
sa tin aud lace by mat erial s more in keeping with the domesti c requirements of the
Third Estate: woolen bonnets and corduroys .... Cha pt al , the spokesman for thi s
exhibition, call s the industrial sta te by its name for the time." Sigmund
Engl ii nder, Ce$chichte der fmn:o$i$chen Arbeiter-Anociutiofl efl (Hamburg,
1864), vol. I , pp. 51- 53. [G4,7]
" In cel ebrating the cent enary of the great Revolution, the French bourgeoisie has,
as it ....ere, intentionall y set out to demonstrate to the proletariat ad OCUW$ the
economi c possibility and nec::essit y of a social uprising. The world exhibition has
givcn the prolet aria t an excelleut idea of the unprtM:edent ed level of deveiolHuelit
whi ch the means of production ha ve reached ill all civili 7.cd la nds-a development
far exc!!eding the boldest ut opi a n fantasies of the century preceding this one....
The exhibition has further demoll strat ed that modern of Ihe forces of
production must of neccssit y lead t o industri al crises that , givcn til e a na rchy
rcntl y reigni ng in production. will onl y grow more acute ....itll the passage of time,
and hence more destructive to IIl e course or the world ecollomy." G. Pl ckhanov.
" Wie die Bourgeoisie ihrer Revoluti on get.lenkt ," Oie lI eue Zei, . 9, 11 0 . I (Stutt ga rt ,
1891). p. 138. [G4a.I J
" Despite all Ihe posturing with which Teut Olli c arroga nce trie. to represenl the
capit al or the HeidI as the brighl est beacon of civilizat ion, Berlin has not yet been
able to mount a worl,1 exhibiti on. . To try 10 excuse this deplorable fact by
claiming t hai world exhibitions have had their day alld now ar e nothing but gaudy
aud gr audi ose vanit y fairs. and so forth , is a crau evasion. We have no wi,l h to
,Ieny the tlrawbacks of ....orld exhibitions ... ; nevertll eless, in ever y case they
relUaili incomparably more I)()",·erful le' ·ers of human culture than tbe countless
barracks a UlI chur ches with .... hicb Berli n has bl.'f: n inundated at such great C08t.
The rccurrent ini t intives 10 est ablish a world exhibitioll ha ve foundered, li rst of
nil , on the Inck of energy ... arflicting the bourgeoisie. a nd, 8tM:ond, on the poorly
disgui sed resentment with whi ch an absolutist-feudal m.ilit arism looks on anything
that could t hr eaten its-alas!---still germinating rOOI8. " (Anonymous,)
cllkiimpfe." Die ' leue Zeit , 12, no. 2 (Stutt ga rt . 1894), p. 257. (G4a,2)
Ou the occasion or tile world exhibition of 1867, Vi ct or Hugo issued a manUealo t o
the l)flOples of Europe. (G4a,3)
Cbevalier .... as Ii discipl e of Enfantin. Editor of Le Globe.
IG",' I
Apropos of Holand ti e la Pl ati er e's Encycwpedie methodique: " Turning to les
mamifuctllre" ... Roland writes: ' Industry is born of need ....' It might appea r
from thi s t hat the term is beill g used in the classical sense of indwtria. What
follows provides clarification: ' Sut this fecund a nd l}Crverse riverhead, of
lar a nd retrogressive disl)()sition, eventuall y came down from the upl ands t o flood
the fi elds, and soon nothing could satisfy the need which overspread the la od. ' ...
What is signifi cant is his ready empl oyment of the word indwtne, more than thirty
years before the work of Chaptal. " Henri Ha user, Le, Debuu du capitawme
(Paris, 193 1), pp. 315-316. (G4a,5)
" Wit h price tag affixed, the commodit y comcs on the ma rket . Its material quaUty
alUl indi vidualit y are merely an incenti ve for buying and selling; for the social
measure orils value. such qualil y is of no importance whatsoever. The commodit y
has become all abstracti on. Once escaped frOnl til e ha nd of the producer and
di vesled or its real particul arit y, it cesse. to be a product and 10 be ruled over by
human beings. It has acquired a ' g1IOStly objecti vity' and leads a life of its 0101' 0 . ' A
commodi ty appears, a t first sight , to be a tri vial anti easily understood thing. Our
anal ysis 811 0ws thut . in realit y, it is a vexetl a nd compl icated thing, abounding in
lII etapll )'sieal suhtl eti es a nd theologi cal ni ceti es. ' Cut ofr from the will of man, it
aligns itself in II myster ious hi erar chy, develops or decl ines exchangeabilit y, alld,
ill accordance with it l! own peculiar la ws, performs as lin actor on a phantom stage.
1/1 the la ngull ge or the commoditi es excha nge, cotton 'soa rs, ' copper 'slunlps,'
corn ' is acth'c: coa l ' is sluggish.' wheat 'is on t he road to recovery.' and petro­
leum ' ,lispla y a healthy treud.' Things have gaine(1 autollomy, and Ihey t ake on
human features.... Tile commodity has been t ransformed int o an idol that .
though t he produci or human hallds, di sposes over the llumall. Marx sl)C.aks of the
feti sh cha racter of the commodit y. ' This feli sh character of t.he comnu)dit y world
has its ori gi n iJl the pt,'c uli ar social character of the labor that produces cUlllmod.i_
. . .. It is onl y til e I' art icnl a r social rel ati on between pcupl e I.hut here au nmes,
in the eyes of these IItltIJlle, the phant asmaguricll l form of a rel atiun between
things. t· ... 0 110 Riihle. Kurl Marx (Hell erll u ( 1928) , PI" 384-385. [C5, 1]
"According to offi cial estimates, a tot al of abunt 750 workers. chosen by thei r
comrades or else named by the entrepreneurs themsel ves. visited London's world
in 1862 .... Tbe offi cial char acter of this delegati on, and the manner in
whi ch it was constituted , naturall y inspi red little confidence in the revolu tiouary
and republica u emi gres from France. This circumsta nce perhaps expl ains why the
idea of an organized re<:ellti on for this deputati on originated with the edi tors of an
organ dedicated t o the eool)tl ra ti ve movement ... . At the urgi ng of the editorial
starr of The Working Man, a committ ee was formed to prepa re a wel come for the
French workers .... Those named to participate iucluded ... J . Morton Pet o, . ..
and J oseph Paxton . . .. Tbe interests of indust ry were put foremost , .. . a nd the
need for an agreement between workers and entrepreneurs , as the sole meam of
bettering the difficult conditi on of the worker s, was strongl y underlined ... . We
cannot ... rega rd thi s gathering as the birthplace . .. of the International Work­
ingmen's Associati on. That is a legend. ... The truth is simpl y that thi s visit
acquired, through its indirect consequences, moment ous iml,ort ance as a key step
on the way to a n underst anding between English and French workers."
D. Rjazanov. " Zur Ceschi chte del' er sten Internationale," in M(lrx-Ens elsArchiv.
vol. I <Fr ankfurt a m Main, 1928>, pp. 157, 159-160. [G5.2)
"Already, for the fi rst world exhibiti on in 185 1, some of the workers proposed by
the ent repreneurs were sent t o London at the st ate's expense. There was 0 180 ,
however , an independent delegation dispatched to London on the initi ati ve of
Biamlui (the econonlisl) and Emile de Girardin. . .. This del egati on submitted a
gener al report in which, to be sure, we find no trace of the att empt to est ablish a
permanent li aison with English worken, but in whi ch the need for peaceful rela­
l ions between England and France is stressed. . . . In 1855, t.he second world
exhibiti on took pl ace, Ihis time in Paris. Delegati ons of workers from the capi tal ,
as well as from the provinces. wer e now totally bar red. It was fea red that they
....ou.ld gi ve workers 1111 opportunit y for organizing. " O. Rj azanov, " Zur Geschi cht e
der crsten Int cfnll li onale," in lIIa rx-E,lsels Archi v • ... -d. Rjazanov, vol. I (Frank­
furt lun Mllin). I'p. 150-151. [G5a, J)
The subtleties of Grandville aptly express what Marx calls the "tll cological nice­
ties't7 of the commodity. [G5a ,2]
" The sense of tast e iH a carri age with four wlu, ·cb . wbi ch are: ( I) Gastronomy; (2)
Cui sine; (3) COlilpa ny: (4) Culture." FrUin <Fuur icr 's) l\'OIl IJf!.lIU Monde inc/us /riel
e/ socie/(jire ( 1829), ci ted in K Puisson, Fourier ( Pa ri il, 1932) . p. 130. (G5a,3)
Cormection of the 6rst world exhibition in London in 185 1 with the idea of free
trade. [G5a,4)
"The world exhibiti ons ha ve lost Illll ch of their origi nal charact er. The ent husiasm
that, in 185 1, was felt in tll c most dispa rate circles has subsided, and in its 1)lace
has come a kind of cool calcul ation. In 185 1, ....e were li ving in the er a of free
trade . . . . For some decades now. we have ....itnessed the spread of prot ecti on_
ism . ... Partici pati on in t he exhibit ion ... a sort of r epresenta ti on . _. ;
and ....hereas in 1850 the ruling t enet Wall that the government Deed not concern
itself in this affair, the situa tion today is so far advanced that the government of
each country can be considera l a verita bl e entrepreneur." Julius Lessing, Da,
halbe Jahrhundert del' WellulIssreliuns en ( Berlin, 1900), pp. 29-30. {G5a,S)
In London, in 1851, " appea red ... the first cast -steel cannon by Knipp. Soon
therea ft er, tbe Prussian minister of war pl aced an order for more tha n 200 exem­
plars of thi s model. " Julius Lessing, Das halbe Jahrhunder"l der" Weltau,uleUun_
Sen (Berlin, 1900), p. II . [C5a,6)
" From the same sphere of thought til at engendered the great idea of free trade
a rose ... Ihe notion that no one would come aWIlY empt y- handed- r ather, the
contrar y- from an exhibitioll at whi ch he had staked his best so as to be able to
take home the best that other peopl e had to offer.. . This bold conception, in
whi ch the idea for the exhibiti on originated, wall put into action . Within eight
months. ever ything was finished . 'An absolute wonder lil at has become a pa rt of
hist ory. ' At the foundation of the entire undert a king, remarkably enough, re8U
the principle that such a work must be backed not by the sta te but by the free
activi t y of its citizens ... . Origi naUy, two privat e contractors, the Munday broth­
er s, offer ed to build, at thei r own risk, a palace costing a milli on ma rks. But
gr ander proportions wer e resolved on, and t he necessary funds for
t he enterprise, tot aling many milli ons, were lI ubscrihed in short order. The Veat
new thought found a great new form. The engineer Paxton built the Cr yst al Pal­
ace. In every r ang out the news of something fa bulous and unpre<:edented: a
palace of glass and iron was goi ng t o be built , one Ihat would co,'er e.ighteen acres.
Not long before this , Paxton had constructed a vault ed roof of glass and iron for
one .of the greenhouses at Kew, in whi ch luxuriant palm8 were growing, and thi,
achi evement gave him the courage to ta ke on the new t ask. Chosen as a sit e for the
exhibition wII s the flllest pa rk in London, Hyde Park, whi ch offered ill the middl e
!I wide open meadow, tra versed !llong its shorter by a ll avenue of splendid
el ms . But anxious onl ookCI's 800n rai sed II cr y of ala rm lest these trees be sacrifi ced
for the sa ke of a whim. ' Theil I shall roof o,'cr til e trees ,' was PalCtou' s answer, and
lI e proceedCllto Il esigu the transept. whi ch, wit.h its semicyliudrical vault elevated
11 2 feet above til e ground , . . . accollunodated the whole ruw of elms. It is in the
highest degree remar ka bl e and signifi cant that t his Great Exhibition of Londoll­
oorll of modern cOll ccpt ions of stea m " owcr. el ectrici t y. ami photogra phy. and
modern conceptions of free trade--should li t t. he same time have a fforded the
decisive impetus, within thit period u a whole, for the r evolution in artistic forms.
To build a palace out of gl us and iron teemed to the world, in thOle days, a
fa nt asti c inspiration for a temporary piece of architecture. We see now that it was
the fi rst great advance on the road to a wholl y new wor ld of forms .... The con­
structi ve style, as opposed to the hist orical style, has become the watchword of the
nlOdern movement. When did this idea make it. triumphal entry into the world? In
the year 1851, wi th the Cr ystal Palace in London. At fi rst , peolJle thought it impo.­
sihle that a Iialace of colossal proportions could be built from glBlSand iron. In the
puhBcati ons of the day, we find the idea of assembling iron components. so fanlil­
iur to us now, represented UII something ext raordinary. England can boast of hav­
ing accomplillhed this quite novel tu k in the space of eight months, ull ing iu
existing factories, without any additional capacit y. Qne points out triumpbantly
that .. . in the . ixteenth century a small glned window wall still a luxury item,
whereas today a building covering eighteen acres can be constructed enti rely out
of glass. To a man like Lothar Bucher, the meaning of thill new IItructure was clear:
it was the undisguised architectural expression of the transver&e strength of slen­
der iron components. But the fantastic charm which the edifice exerted on aU lOuls
went weU beyond such a characteri zati on, however crucial for the program of the
future; and in this regar d, the preser vation of the magnificent row of trees for the
central transept was of capital importance. Into this space were transported all the
horti cultural glories which the rich conservatories of Engl and had been able to
cultivate. Lightl y 1)lumed palms from the tropics mingled with the leafy cr own. of
the fi ve-hundred-year-old elms; and within thit enchanted forest the decoraton
arranged masterpi eces of plan ic art, slatuary, large bronzes, and specimens of
other artworks. At the center stood an imposing crystal fountai n. To the right and
to the left r an galleries in which visitors passed from one nati onal exhibit to the
other. Over all, it seemed a wonderl and, appealing more to the i.magination than to
the inteUecl . ' It is with sober economy of phrase that I term the prospect incompa­
r abl y fairy-like. This space is a summer night '. dream in the midnight SIlO'
(Lolhar Bucher ). Such sentiments were registered throughout the world. I myself
recaU, from my childhood, how the new. of the Crystal Palace r eached us in
Ger many, and how pictures of il were hl10g in the middle-class parl ors of distant
provincial towns. It seemed then that the world we knew from old fairy taie8--0f
the princess in the gl au coffin , of queens and el ves dwelling in cr ystal houBelJ-had
come to life ..., and these inlpressions have persisted through the decades. The
great tranBeI)t of the palace and part of the pavilions were transferred to Syden­
ham, where the building stands today;' ther e I saw it in 1862, with feelings of awe
and the sheerest delight. It has taken four decades. numer ous fires, and many
depredations 10 r uin thi s magic. although even today it is still not compl etely
vani shed." Julius Lessing. Das halbe Jahrhunderl der WeltulusuJlwl8en (Berlin,
19(0), pp. 6-10. [G6; G6a,I)
Organizi ng the New York exhibition of 1853 fell to Phineas Barnum. [G6a,2)
" I..e Play has calculated that the number of years rcclui red 10 prepare a world
exhibition equals the number of months it runs .... There ia obviously a ahocking
Exterior of the Crystal Palace, London. See G6; G6a, l.
disproportion here bet ween the period of gestation and the duration of the enter­
prise." Maurice I'ecard , Les Expositions internationales au point de vue ecoRO­
mit/lie er social, particuli.erement en France (Paris, 1901), p. 23. [G6a,3)
A booksell er 's poster apl»ear s in Le. Muraille. revolurionnaires de 18/18 with the
following expl anatory remark: " We offer this affiche, a8 later we shaU offer others
unrelated to the elections or to the political event s oflbe day. We offer it because it
lells why and how certain manufacturer s profit from certain occasions." .' rom the
Iwster : " Reatl this imlwrtall t notice against Swindlers. MOlisieur AJexandre
Pier re, wishing 10 stop t he dail y abuses created by the gelleral ignor ance of the
Argot and J argoll of swindl ers and dangerous men, haa made good use of the
unhappy ti me he was forced to spend with them as a victim of the fall en Govern­
ment ; now r estored to liberty by our noble Republi c, he haa juSI published the
fruit of those l ad studiell he was able to make in prison. He is not afr ai d to descend
inlo Ihe midsl of these horrible pl aces, and even inl O t he Lions' Den, if by t hese
means ... he ca n she{1 liglu on Ihe princi pal words of thcir convcrsatiolls , and
thus make il possible 10 avoid ti le mil!fort unes arltl abuses thai result from nOI
knowing these words, which until now were intelligi ble onl y to swindl ers .... On
sale from publi c vendors a nd from the Autlror." Le. Mltraille. riwollllionnaire5 de
1848 (Paris ( 1852), vol. I , p. 320. [G7, 1]
If the commodi ty was a fetish, then Grandville was the tribaJ sorcerer.
IG',' I
mond Empire: "The government 's candidates ... wer e able to print their proela­
mations on whit e paper, a color reserved exclusivel y for official publications."
A. Malet a nd P. Grillet , XI X' .iecle (Paris, 1919) , I)' 27 1. [G7,3]
InJugendstil we see, for the first time, the integration of the human body into
advertising. DJugendstil 0 [G7,4}
Worker delegati ons at the world exhibition of 1867. At the t OI) of the agenda is the
demand for the abrogation of Article 1781 of the Civil Code, which reads: '"The
employer's word shaD be t aken as true in his statement of wages apportioned, of
salary pai d for t he year ended, and of accounts given for the current year"
(I' . 140).-"T he delegations of worken at the exhibitions of London and Paris in
1862 and in 1867 gave a direction to the 80cial movement of the Second Empi re,
and even, we may say, t o that of the sccond half of the nineteenth century....
Their reports were compared to the rec:ord8 of the Est ates General ; the former
were the signal for a 80cial evolution, just as the latter, in 1789, had been the cause
of a politi cal and cconomic revolut ion" (I" 207). -{Thi8 comparison comes from
1'tUchel Chevali er. ] Demand for a ten-bour workday (I" 121). - " Four hundred
thousand free ti ckets were distributed to t he workers of Paris and various
cieparl ement• . A barracks with more than 30,()(M) beds was put at the disposal of
the vi siting workers" (p. 84). Henry Fougere, Le. Deiegalion$ Quvriere. aax expo­
. itions univer.elle. (Montlut-on, 1905). [G7,5}
Gatherings of worker delegations of 1867 at the " t raining ground of the Passage
Raoul ." Fougere, p. 85. [G7a,l ]
"The exhihition Il ad long since closed, hut the delegate8 continued their discus­
sions, and the pa rli ament of workers kept llOlding sessions in the Passage Haoul. "
Henry Jo' ougere, Le. DeUgation. oll vriereJ (lUX expo.ition. IIni ller.elle. 50118 Ie
lIcco/l d empire 1905), 1'1" 86-87. Altogetil er, the sessions lasted from
July 21. 1867, until Jul y 14, 1869. [G7a ,2}
Int ernational Assoeiation of Workers. ''' The A88ociati on ... {IIII CS from 1862,
from the lime of t he world exhi bi ti on in LOllll on. It was there t hat Engl ish and
French workers first met , to holll di scussions a llli Sirek mutu il l cnli gilt clllnent. '
Statcment made by M. Tolain on March 6, 1868 •... during the flrlH suit IJrought
by the government aga inst t he Int ernational AS8ociation of Workers." Il cnry
Fougerc, 1A!5 lJeUgotiOJu Oll vrierc. tlll.;c eX/Jo, itio". IlII i vencllCJ '011$ Ie "ecotld
empi re (Montlu\'on, 1905), p. 75. T hc fi nll great lIIt:eting in London drafted a
(Ieclarat ion of sympath y for the liberal ion of the Polcs. [G7a,3]
In till: three or four reports by the worker delegati ons who took part in the world
exhihitioll of 1867, therc are demauds for the abol ition of st anding armies anti for
geller al di sarma lllelll . Delcgations of porcelain painters, pillno repairmen, shoe­
lIIa ken, and mec:hanics. See Fougere. PI' . 163-164. [G7a,4]
1867. " Whoever visit ed the Chaml) de Mars for t he first time got a sillJ,·ular impres­
sion. Arri ving hy the central a\'enue, he saw at first ... onl y iron and smoke ... .
This initi al impression exert ed SUell an illfluence on the visit or that , iglloring the
tempting diversions offered by the arcade, he would hasten toward the movement
IIntlnoise that attracted him. At every poiut ... where the machines were monlen­
ta ril y still , he could hear the st rai ns of steam-powered organs and t.hc symphoni es
of brass instruments." A. S. de Doncourt , Les Exposilion$ ILniver.elle. (Lille and
I)uris <1889) , PI' . 1 I 1- 112. [G7a,5)
Theatri cal works pertaining to the world exhil)ition of 1855: Paris trop petit ,
August 4, 1855, Tlu!itre du Luxembourg; Paul Meurice, Puri. , July 21 , Porte­
Saint-Martin; Theodore Barriere a nd Paul {Ie Koek, L'lIisloire de Paris and Le.
Grand. Siecle5. September 29; Le. Mode. de l'expo.ition; Dzim boom boom: Re­
vue de l 'exhibition; Sebasti en Rheal, La Vision de f'awtw. 011 L'E:cpositiotl uni­
verselle de 1855. In Adolphe De.my, Eu ai hi810rique . ur Ie. expo. i, ioru
uni ver.elle5 de Puris (Paris, 1907), p . 90. [C7a,6]
London's world exhibition of 1862: " No t race remained of t he edifying impre88ion
made by the exhibition of 185 1. ... Nevertheless, thi s exhihition had some note­
worthy result8.... T he greatest surprise ... callie from China. Up to this time,
Europe had seen nothing of Chinese art except ... til e ordinary I)() rcelains sold OD
the IUllr·ket . Hui 1I 0W the Anglo-Chinese war had taken place ... , and the SUlIlmer
Palace had ht.'Cn burnell t o the ground, SUPI)()u."d ly a8 In truth,
however, the English had succeeded even more dUIll t hei r a lli es , the French, in
carrying awa y a large portion of treasures alll assed in that palnce, and these
treasures were 8ubsequentl y put 0 11 exhihit in London i.1I 1862. For the sake of
Ili screti on, il was women r ather than men ... who actcd as exhibit ors." Julius
LeS5ing, Da. 'Ultbe jalrrlllmtIerl tier Welltll1881ellllflgen (Ber lin, 1900), p. 16.
IG8,II
Lessing (Do. II (JII..e }trllrllunrlert der Wei,all.stelluflgcn [Berlin. 1900]. p. " )
IHJ illIJi up t he difference Iwtwet:1l the ...·orld exhibi ti on;; a lld the fairs. " or the latter,
til e IIlcr'cha nt s brought II lCir whole stock of along with thclII . Thc world
exhibitiolls pre8UPI)()Se a considcra ble developmcnt of conllllerci al as well a8 in­
credit- that is to@ay,crt:tlit 011 the part of the customcrs. as wdla8 0 11 Ihe
part or the firms taking thei r ordet"8. (G8,2]
" You Iid iheratel y had to close your eyes in order not to realize Iha llhe fair 0 11 the
Champ de Ma rs in 1798. that Ihe supe rh porticoes of tlu: courtyard of til e l..ouvre
alld t.he courtyard of Ihe In Vll lidcs cOlistructetl in the rollowing years, alld. filially,
thaI tlt e mcmorabl e royal ordinance or J anuary 13, 18 19," have powcrrull y eOIl ­
t r ihut cd to the glorious development or French industry.... It was reserved rOr
the king or France to trall sform the magnificent gaUeri es or his palace into a ll
immell 8C bazaa r, in order that his IH!Opie might contempl ate ... thesc ullbioodied
trophics raised up by t he gt:uius or the arts and the geuiu! of l)Cal:e." doseph­
Charl cs. Chcll Ou and H. D., Notice sur l 'exposition des produits de et
des arts flui a eu lieu aDOlWi en 1827 (Douai, 1827), p. 5. [G8,3]
'1l:tree different delegations of workers "'ere sent to London in 1851; none of
them accomplished anything significant. Two " 'ere official: one represented the
National Assembly, and one the municipality of Paris. The private delegation
was put together with the support of the press, in particular of Emile de Girardin.
The workers themselves played no part in assembling these delegations. [G8,4]
The dimensions of the Crystal Pal ace, according to A. S. Doncourt , Les Expoli-­
,iolll ( wil e and Paris dB89», p. 12. The long sides measured 560
meters. [G8,5]
On the workers' delegations to the Great Exhibition in London in 1862: " Electoral
offices were being r apidl y organized when, on the eve of elections, an inci dent ...
arose t o iml)C(le the ol)Crations. The Paris police ... took umbrage at Ihis unprece­
dent ed development , alld the Workers Commission was ordered to cease its ac­
tiviti es. Convinced that thi s measure ... could onl y be the resuh or a mis­
understa nding, members of the Commission took their aplHlal directl y t o His
Majest y .... The emperor .. . was, in facl , willillg to authorize the Commi sssion to
pursue its t ask. The e1ect iolls ... resulted ill the selecti on of two hundred dele­
ga tes .... A lH!riod of len Ilays had been gr anted to each group t o accomplish its
mi ssion. Each del egat e received, on his departure, the sum of 11 5 fra ncs, a 8flCo'
(llul -cl ass round-trip t rai n ti cket , lodging, and a meal. as well as a pass t o the
exhibiti on .... This grca t popular movement took place witllOut the sli ght est inci­
de lll tllllt . coulll bl."Cli termell regrettahle." RlIpporl s des deles"e. del
olwrie r., (; l'exposi,ioll de umtirel ell 1862, pllbfie. ]Jur 1(1
oliliriere ( Puris . 1862- 1864) [I vol.!] , pp. iii- iv. (The Ilocumcnt cont ains r.rt y­
tllrl."C repol·ts by Ilclegutions from the dirferent trall e.... ) [GSa, !]
Pari... _ 1855. " Four were guardi ng the hall of machines, like those
great IlIIlIs or Nineva ll . or like t he sphinxes to bc seen a t t he entrance to Egylltian
temples. This hall was a land of iron a nd fire and water ; tll c ca rll were deafellt,.'(I,
the e}'t!s (Iazzlell .... All was in moti on. One sa .... wool combed , dotl. twistcll , yarn
clipped. grain threshed . coal ext racted . chocolate refined, and on and on. All
exhibitors without excepti on were allowell lIIotil.it y and steam, contrary t o what
went on in Lolllion in 185 1, when onl y the English exhihit ot"8 had had the benefit of
fire and water." A. S. DonCOlirt . Les (LilJe and Paris
<1 889» . 11• 53. [G8a,2]
In 1867, the " ori ent al qua rter" was t.he cent er of atl.raetion.
(G8a,3)
Fifteen million \' isitol"8 to the exhibiti on of 1867.
[G8a,4]
In 1855, for the fi rst time, merchandise could he ma rked with a price.
IG8a,5]
>< Le Play had ... under 8l0<K! how neceua ry it would become t o find what we caU,
in modern parlance. ' a draw' -lIome uar a ttraction. He likewise foresa",' that this
nec.e......ity would lead to mi snl anagement of the exhihitions, and thi s is the issue ...
to which l\f. Claudi o-J anet addressed himself ill 1889: ' The economist l\f. Frederic
Passy. a worthy man. has for mauy years now, in hi s speeches to Parliament a nd to
the Aeademie, b,een denouncing the ahuscs of the street fai rs. Everything he saya
about the gingerbread fair ... call also IH! said (allowing for differences in magni­
tude) of the great centennial cel ebra tiOIl . '" A note at thi s (loint: " The centenni al
celebration. in fact. was 80 successful that the Eiffel Tower, which cost 6 million
francs, had already earned, by the ftfth or November, 6,459,581 francs." Ma uri ce
internafionClk. au point de vue economique et lociak.
en France (Paris , 190 1), I). 29. (G9,l )
The exhibition palace or 1867 011 the Champ de by some to
Rome's Colosscum: " The arrangement conceived by L..e Play, the head of the exhi­
bition committee, was a most feli ci tous one. The objects on exhi bit were distrib­
uted. according to their materials. in eight concentri c galleries; twelve avenues ...
branched out from the center, and the I>rincipal nations occupied the sectors cut
by those radii. In this way, ... by strolling around the gaUeri es, one could ...
survey the stat e of one particula r indust ry in all the different countries, whereas,
by strolling up the avenuC1l that crossed them, one could ... urvey the sta te of the
different branches of industry in each particul a r country." Adolphe Dimy, Euai
historique l ur k l de Pa ris (Paris, 1907), p. 129.-Cited
here is Theophil e Gauti er 's articl e about the palace in Le Moniteur of September
17, 1867: " We have before li S, it seems, u monument created 011 another planet, 011
Jupiter or Saturll , according t o a tast e we do not recognize ami with a coloration to
whi ch our eyes arc lIot accll stomed." Just berore this: " The grea t azure gulr, with
its hlood-colored rim, prol luces II vcrtiginous erfect a ud unsettles our idcas of
architecture. " .
(G9,2]
Hesistance t o the world exhihiti on of 185 1: "The king or Prussia forbade the royal
prince anti princell ... from traveling to London.... The diplomati c corps re­
fused to addreu any word of congratulations to the (Iueell . ' At this mome"t ,'
wrote ... Prince Albert 10 hi s mother 011 April IS, 1851, ... ' Ihe opponent s of the
Exhihiti on are hard al work.... The foreigner l, they cry, will start a r adi cal
revolution here; they will kill Vi clori a and mysel f and proclaim a red republic.
MOI·cover, t.he plugue wi ll surely reault from the inAu" of such multitudes a nd wiD
devour tholle wllO have not been dri vell away by the high prices on everything. ' ..
Adolphe Dimy, Euo.i hu ,orique Sllr te, expo.i rion. Itlliverselle. (Paris, 19(7),
p.38. [G9,3)
de Neufchateau on the exhibition of 1798 (in Demy, Euai hutorUiue . ur
tes exposition. uni ver.elle. ). "'The French,' he declared, .. ' have amazed
EurolJe by the swiftness of thei r milit ary successes; they should launch a career in
commerce and the arts with just the l ame fer vor '" (p. 14). " This initial expo8ition
... is really an initial ca mpaign, a campaign disastrous for English industry"
(p. 18).-Martial characler of the opening procefl8ion: "(1) a contingenl of trum·
peter s; (2) a det achment of cavalry; (3) the first two squads of mace bearers; (4)
the drums; (5) a military marching hand; (6) a 8quad of infantry; (7) the heralds;
(8) the festival marshal ; (9) the artis18 registered in the exhibition; (10) the jury"
(p. 15).-Neufchateau awards the gold medal to the most heroic anauh on Eng.l.ieb
industry. [G9a, I)
The lIec!ond e"hibition, in Year IX," was supposed to bring together, in the court·
ya rd of the Louvre, works of industry and of the plastic artll. But lhe artilltll
refu sed 10 e"hibit their work alongside thai of manufacturers (Demy, p. 19).
(G9a,2)
Exhibition of 18 19. '""fhe king, on the occallion of the exhibition, conferred the
title of baron on Ternaux and Oberkalllpf. ... The granting of a ri st ocratic titl ea to
industrialistll had provoked Home crit icill ms. In 1823, no new titles were con­
ferred ." Di my, Eu ai hutorique, p. 24. (G9a,3]
Exhibilioll of 1844. Madame de Girardin's conunenlS on the event , <in> Vicomt e de
l..aunay, uttres paru iennes, vol. 4, p. 66 (cited in Demy, Euai hu torique. p. 27):
.... ' It is a pl easure, ' she remarked, 'strangely a kin to a nightmare.' And II he went OD
to enumerat e the singularities, of whi ch ther e waa no lack: the fl ayed horlle, the
colo88al het:tl c, Ihe moving jaw, the chronomet ri c Turk who ma rked the hours by
the number of hi s somersaults, and- Iall t but not least- l\1 . and Mme. Pipelel , the
concierges in u. Mystere. cle Paris , 1: ill angelll." (G9a,4)
World exhibiti on of 1851: 14, 837 exhibitors; that of 1855: 80,000. [G9a,S)
In 1867, the t: gyptiall e"hiiJit was housed ill a IlUilding whose design Will based on
a n Egyplialll elilpl e. [G9a,6)
In hi s 1I 0"e! The Fortren , Wal l)Ole dellcribeathe precautions Ihat ....ere taken in a
lotlgi ng- house sl)eCially designed 10 ....elcome visit ors to the ....orld exhibiti on of
1851. These preca uti ons incl uded continuolls 1)OIice survei ll ance of the dormit o­
ries, the pn:llell ce of a cha plain, ami a regular morni ng vi sit by a doctor. [GIO, I)
Walpole describes the Crystal Palace, with Ihe g1asll fount ain at its cenl er and the
old e1m;;--the laller " looking a lmost like Ihe lions of Ihe forest caught in a net of
glass" (p. 307) . He deKribes the booths decorated with expensive carpets, and
above aU the machines . " There were in Ihe machille· r OOIll the 'self-acling mules,'
the J aCtlua rd lace machines, the envelope machines, the power looms, the model
10comOlivC1l, celltrifugal pumps, the vertical 81eam--e.ngines, aU of Ihe3e ....orking
like mad , whi le Ihe thousands ncarby, in their high hats and bonnela. sat patientl y
wailing, passive, unwillill g that Ihe Age of Man on thi s Plunet was doomed. " Hugh
Walpole, "he Forrren (Hamburg, Parill, a lld Bologna <1933», p. 306.13 (GIO,2)
Delvau speaks of " men who, each evenill g, have their eyes glued 10 the display
....indow of I..a BeUe J a rdinere to watch the day's receilll8 being counted." Alfred
Delvau , us Heure. paruienne. (Pa ris, 1866). p. 144 ("Huit heures dll soir").
IGIO,']
In a speet': h to Ihe Senate, on January 31,1868, Michel Chevalier makes aD effort
to save the previous year 's Palace of Industry from de3truction. Of the various
posllibilitiell he lays out for lIalvaging the building, the most noteworthy ill that of
using the interior-which, with its circular form, ill ideally ll uit ed 10 such a pur­
pOIle--for practicing troop maneuvers. He also proposes developing the structure
into a lH!rmanent merchandise mart for in1l)Orts. The intention of the opposing
party seemll to have been to keep the Champ de Mars free of all construction- this
for mililary reallons. See Micliel Chevali er. Dilcours .fUr line petition reciamo.nt
conlre ia de$truCliotl du pailli. cle l 'Expo.ition IIniversette de 1867 (Paris, 1868).
IGIO,. ]
"The world exhibitions ... cannot fai l to provoke the mosl exacl comparisons
1H!lween t.he pri ces a nd the qualities of the same article as produced ill different
countriC1l. fl o .... tli e school of abllolute freedom of trade rejoices then! The world
exhibitiunll contribute ... 10 the reduction, if nottlie a boliti on , of cll slom duties. "
Achill e de Colusont (?>, lIi3toire de$ exposition. cles proouiu cle t 'indlUtrie
(Paril, 1855), p. 544. [Gl Oa, I)
E,·ery in u hihil ing itll trophics
In liIi" ha1!aar of Uni llCr8ll 1 Jl rogrcu.
to ha"'l horrowed a fairy's magi c wand
To hlc&!I lhe Cr)"S1al Palaer: .
Rich men. ""llOlar8. prokl arillnll-­
Each on.· lahort for Ihr: co mmon I!!OV(I;
'\nd. j oi nin! toget her like nohle hrolhcr •.
,\11 loa lie at hclt rlthe ha l' l,i netl' of each.
Clairville anti Jules Cordi er, Le Pulail de Cristal, ;;
[Theat re de la Port e-SainI-Mar tin, May 26, 185 1J ( Paris, 185 1), p. 6. [GlOa,2)
The laS! two tablea ux from Clairvill e's Palais de Crillal take place in f ronl of a nd
illside Ihe Cr yst al Pa lace. The stage di rections for the (llext to) laSI tabl eau: ''The
main gall ery of the Cr yst al Palace . To the left , downstage, a bcd, at the head of
... hich is a la rge dial. At cent er st age , a 8ma1l ta bl e holding small sacks and pots of
ea rth. To the ri ght , an el ectrical machine. Toward the rear, an exhibiti on of vari­
ous products (based 0 11 the descriptive engraving done in Londoll)" (p. 30).
[CIOn,3]
Ad verti sement for Marquis Chocolates, from 1846: " Chocolate from La Ma ison
Marqui s, 44 Rue Vivienne, at the Passage des Panoramas.-The time has come
... hen chocolate praline, and all the ot her va rieties of chocolat de fantail ie, will he
available ... from t he House of l\1a rqu.i s in the most varied and gr aceful of
forms.... We are privileged to be able to aDli ounce to our readers tha t, oltce
again, a ll assortment of pleasing verses, j udiciously selected from a mong the year's
purest , most gracious, and most elevated publications, will accompany the exqu.i­
site confections of Marquis. Confident in the favora ble advant age that is ou rs
alone, we rejoice t o bring together that puissant name wi th 80 much lovely verse."
Cabi net des Est ampes. [GlOa,4]
Palace of Indust ry, 1855: "Six pavili ons bonier t he buil di ng on four sides, and 306
ar cades run tbrough the lower st ory. An enormous glass roof provides li ght to the
int eri or. As mater ia ls, onl y stone, iron, a lld zi nc have heell used ; building costs
amount ed t o II millioll francs .... Of particular interest are two lar ge paintings
on gl ass at the eastern and west ern ends of the ma in gall ery.... The fi gures rep re­
sented 011 tbese appear to be life-size, yet ar e no les8 than six meters high." Acht
Tage in Paris ( Pa ris, Jul y 1855), PI' . 9-10. The pa int ings on glass show fi gures
represent ing indust ri al Fra nce and Justi ce. {GI I , I]
" I have ... written, together ... ith my coll abora tor s on I. 'A telier, t ha t the moment
for economic revolution has come ... , although we had all agn-ed some time
previously that the workers of Europe had acbieved solidarit y and that it was
necessa r y now to move 0 11 , before anything else, to the idea of a politi cal federat ion
of peopl es. " A. Corbon, Le Secret tlu peuple de Pa ris (Paris, 1863), p. 196. Also
p. 242: " In sum, the poli t ical att it ude of the working cl ass of Paris consists uhll ost
entirely in t. he desire to ser ve t he movement of federation of nationali­
ties ." [C I I,2]
Ni na Lassave, Fi eschi 's bdol'ed, was empl oyed. aft cr his executi on on February
19, 1836, as a cashier al Ihe Cafe de la 0 11 tilt: Pl ace ti e la Bourse.
{Gll ,3]
AII.imal symholism ill Tonsscll eI: the mole. " The mole is .. . not the emblem of a
single character. II is the emblem of a whole social peri oa: the period of indust ry's
infancy. the Cyclopean pcriod .... It is the .. . all egor ica l expression of the ahso­
lu te predominance of hrule fOI·ce over illtcllt.-eili al force ... . Many estimable
analobtlsts find a marked resembl a nce betW(''C1I moles, ... hi ch II pllll·1I the soil a nd
pierce passages of 6ubi elTanean conuuuni cati on, ... and t he monopoli zers of r ail·
roads and stage I·out es.... The extreme ner vous sen8ibil ity of tile mole, whicb
fea rs the li ght . . . , admi rably cha racter izes the obstinate obscu rantism of t. hose
monopoli zers of banking and of trall sport ation, who also fea l· the li ght ."
A. Toussenel , 'Esprit des oo' es : Zoologie passiOllllelle-l'tfammiferes de France
(pari s, 1884), pp. 469, 473--474.].1 [G ll ,4]
Ani mal symboli sm in Toussell ei: the marmot . "The ma l·mot .. . loses its hair at its
work- in all usion t o the paillfullabor of the chimney sweep , who rubs and spoils
his clotbes in hi s occupati on." A. Toussenel , L 'Esprit des /Je' es (Pa ris, 1884),
. ="
Plant symbolism ill Toussend : the vine. " The ViJle loves t o gossi p ... ; it mounts
fa mili a rl y to t he shoulder of plum t ree, oBve, or elm, and is intimate with all the
trees." A. Toussell el , L'Esprit betes ( Paris, 1884), p. 107. [C Il ,6]
Toussenel expounds the theory of the circle and of the parabola with reference
to the different childhood games of the two sexes. This recalls the anthropo­
morphisms of Grandville. "The figures preferred by childhood are invariably
round- the baH, the hoop, the marble; also the fruits which it prefers: the cherry,
the gooseberry, the apple, the jam tart. ... The analogist, who has observed these
games with continued attention, has not failed to remark a characteristic differ­
ence in the choice of amusements, and the favorite exercises, of the children of
the two sexes .... \Vhat then has our observer remarked in the character of the
games of feminine infancy? He has remarked in the character of these games a
decided proclivity toward the elli pse. I I observe among the favorite games of
feminine infancy the shuttlecock and the jump rope.... Both the rope and the
cord describe parabolic or elliptical curves. \Vhy so? \Vhy, at such an early age,
this preference of the minor sex for the elliptical curve, this manifest contempt for
marbles, ball, and top? Because the ellipse is the curve of love, as the circle is that
of The ellipse is the figure in which God ... has profiled the form of
His favorite creatures-woman, swan, Arabian horse, dove; the ellipse is the
essentially attractive form .... Astronomers were generally ignorant as to why
the planets describe ellipses and not circumferences around their pivot of attrac­
tion; they now k.now as much about this mystery as I do." A. TousselleJ, L'Espn·,
des biles, pp. 89-91.
'6
(Glla,I)
TousselleJ posits a symbolism of curves, according to which the circle represents
friendship; the ellipse, love; the parabola, the sense of family; the hyperbola,
ambition. In the paragraph concerning the hyperbola, there is a passage closel y
related to Grandville: "The hyperbola is the curve of ambition.. . . Admire the
detennined persistence of the ardent asymptote pursuing the hyperbola in head­
long eagem ess: it approaches, always approaches, its goal .. . but never attains
it." A. Toussenel, L'Espn'f des beles (Paris, 1884), p. 92.'1 [Gll a.2]
AJl imal symboli sm in Toussenel : the hedgehog. "Gluuoll ous allli repulsive, it is
al so the portrait of the scurvy slave of til e IH:n, traffi cking with all subj ects, scUing
postmaster's appoiJl tments and theater passes, ... and drawi ng .. from Ilis
sorr y Chr istian conscience pledges and apologies at fixed prices . . .. It is said that
Ihe hedgehog iSlhc onl y quadruped of France on whi ch the venom of the viper has
no effect. I shoul d have guessed this exception merely from analogy. .. For
expl ain . .. how calumny (the vi lJer) can stillg the literary blackguard."
A. Toussene!, L 'Esprit des Mtes (Paris, 1884). PI" <1, 76, [G II a,3)
" Lightning is the kiss of clouds, stormy but faithful. Two lovers who adore each
other, and who will tell it in spite of all obstacl es, are two clouds animated with
opposite elect ri cities, and swell ed wil h tragedy. " A. Toussenel. L 'Esprit des betes:
Zoologie de Frallce, 4th ed. (Paris, 1884), pp. 100­
[G12,l)
The first edition of Toussenel's L'Esprit des be fes appeared in 1847.
IGl2,' 1
" I have vainl y questioll ed the archives of antiquit y to fi nd traces of the sett er dog.
I have appealed to the memory of the most lucid somnambuli sts to ascertain the
epocll when thi s race appeared. All the information I could procure . . . leads to
this concl usion: the setter dog is a creation of modern ti mes." A. Toussenel, L'Es­
prit des Mtes (Pa ri s, 1884), p. 159. :0 [G12,3)
"A beautiful young woman is a true voltaic cell , ... in whi ch the capti ve fluid i8
retained by the form of surface8 and the isolating virtue of the hair; 80 that wheD
thi s fluid would escape from its sweet prison, it must make incredibl e efforl8,
which produce in turn, by inRuence on bodies differentl y animated, fearful rav­
ages of att raction . . .. The hi story of the human race swarms with examples of
intelligent and learned men, intrepid heroes, ... transfixed merely by a woman's
eye . ... The hol y King David proved that he perfectl y understood the condensing
proper ti es of polished elliptical surfaces when he took unt o himself the young
Abigail. " A. Toussencl, L 'Esprit des befes (Paris. 1884). pp. 101_103.
11
{G12,4]
TOll ssenei explai ns the rotation of the eart h as the r esultant of a centrifugal force
and a force of attracti on. Further on: "Til e star. . begins to wah7. its frell eti e
wa lt z . . .. E\'er ything rustl es, stirs, warms up, shines on !lIe sllrface of the globe,
whicll onl y the eveni ng before was entombed in the frigid sil ence of night . Marvel­
Oil S spectacle for the well -placed observer--change of scene wonderful to behold.
For the revolut ion took place between two suns und, that very evelling. un ame­
thyst Slur mall e its fir st apl Jeara nce in our skies" (p. 45). And, alluding 10 the
volcanism of earlier epochs of the earth; " We know the effects whi ch the first walt lE
usually 011 deli cate .. .. The Eart h, too. "" as rudely awakened by
its first ordeal. " A. Toussenel , L'Esprif des befes; Zoologie Pll.SSiOflnelle (Paris,
1884). pp. 44-45. [G12,5)
Principle of Toussenel 's zoology; "The rank of the species is ill direct proportion to
its resemblance to the human being. " A. Toussell el, L'E$pril des beres (Pari s,
1884), I)' i. Compar e the epigraph to the work: ''' The best thing about lII all is his
dog. ' -Charlet ." [Gl2a,l )
The aeronaut Poitevin, sustained by great publicity. ulldertook an " ascent to Ura_
nus" accompanied in the gOlldola of his balloon by young women dressed as
mythological figures. Paris $OU $ la Republique de 1848: Expositioll de la Bib­
fiotheque el des Iravaux historiques de fa Ville de Pa ris (1909). p. 34. [GI2a,2)
We can speak of a fetishistic autonomy not only with regard to the commodity
but also-as the following passage from Marx indicates-with regard to the
means of production: "Ifwe consider the process of production from the point of
view of the simple labor process, the laborer stands, in relation to the means of
production, ... as the mere means . . . of his own intelligent productive activ­
ity . ... But it is different as soon as we deal with the process of production from
the point of view of the process of surplus-value creation. The means of produc­
tion are at once changed into means for the absorption of the labor of others. It is
now no longer the laborer that employs the means of production, but the means
of production that employ the laborer. Instead of being consumed by him as
material elements of his productive activity, they consume him as the ferment
necessary to their own life process . . . . Furnaces and workshops that stand idle
by night, and absorb no living labor, are a ' mere loss' to the capitalist. Hence,
furnaces and workshops constitute lawful claims upon the night labor of the
workpeople.":12 Tl1is observation can be applied to the analysis of Grandville. To
what extent is the hired laborer the "soul" of Grandville's fetishistically animated
objects? [Gl 2a,3)
"Night distributes the steUar essence to the sleeping planlS. Every bird which flies
has the thread of the infinite in its claw. " Victor Hugo, Oeuvres completes (Paris ,
L88I). 1I0vel s, vol. 8, 1' .114 (Les Miserables, book 4).23 [G12a,4)
Drumont caUs Toussenel "one of the greatest prose writers of the century. "
Edoua rd Drumont , Les Heros et les pitre$ (Pa ris ( 1900) , p. 270 ("Toussenel").
[G12a ,5)
Technique of exhibiti on: "A fUlldumeli tal rule, Ilui ckl y learnell through observa­
tion, is that 110 object should he placed direet1y on the fl oor, on a level with the
walkways. Pianos, furniture, physical apparatus, and machines are better di s­
played on a pedestal or rai sed platform. The hest exhibits nl ake usc of two quit e
di stinct systems: displays under glass and open di splays. To be sure, some prod­
ucts , by their very nature or because of their value, have to he protected from
with the a ir or the hand; oillen! benefit (rom being left uncovered." Expo­
-
. ilion unilJcrselle de 1867, ci Pm';,, : Album dell in.tluiJalion.J Ie. pllU rerrwrquablu
de l'Exposition de 1862. a Lolldres, publii par lu commiuion impe riale pour
.ervir de renseigrlemcnl UlU eXpO,cHlt, des di ver,e' "(llium (Pari" 1866) <I). 5>.
AJhum of plate. in lar ge folio. widl very interesting illustrations. l ome in color,
sho..... ing-in cr oss-section or longitudinal section, 81 the case Dlay be--the pavil.
iOllt of the world exhibition of 1862. Bibliothi!<lue Nationale. V.644. [G 13,1 J
Paris in til e year 2855: "Our many visitors from Sa turn and Mara have entirely
forgott en, since a rriving her e, the hori :l:Olls of their mother planet! Paris is hence­
forward the capilal of creation! ... Where are you, Champs-El ysees, favored
theme of newswrit enl in 1855? ... Buzzing along this thoroughfa re that is paved
widl 1I 01l 0w iron and roofed with crystal are the bees and hornets of fmance! The
capitali sts of Ur sa Major are conferring with the stockbrokenl of Mercury! And
coming on the market thi s very day are shares in the debris of Vellus half con­
sumed by its own Aames!" Anlene Houssaye, "L.e Paris futur," in Porn et lu
Pari.s iem au XIX' .siecie (Paris, 1856), pp. 458-459. IG13,2)
At the time of the establi shment , in London, of the General Council of the Workenl
the following rema rk ci rculated: " The child born in the work­
shops of Paris was nursed in London." See Charles Benoist , "L.e ' My the' de I.
classe ouvriere," Rellue des deux mOrldes (March I , 1914), p. 104. [GI3,3)
"Seeing that the gala ball is the sole occasion on which men contain themselve8, let
us get used to modeling all our instituti ons on gatheri ngs such as these, wbere the
woman is queen." A. Toussenel, Le Monde de, oi.seaux, vol. I (Paris, 1853).
p. 134. And: "Many men are courtcous and gaUant at a ball, doubting not tbat
gallantry is a commandment of God" (ihid. , p. 98). [GI3,4)
On Gabriel Engelma nn: " When he published his Euail lithogrophique.s in 1816,
great care was taken to reproduce this medallion as the frontispiece to his book,
.....jth the inscription: ' Awarded to M. G. Engelmann of Mulhouse (Upper Rhine).
Lurge-8cale execution, and refinement , of the art of lithography. Encouragement.
1816. '" Henri Bouchot , 1..« Lithographie ( Paris (1895» , p. <38>. (G13,5)
On the London world exhihition: " Ill making the roundli of thi s enormous exhibi­
tion, the observer soon realizell that . to avoid confusion , . .. it has been necessary
to clust er the different nationalities in a certain number of groups, and that the
only useful way of establi shing these industrial groupings was to do so on the basis
of--oddl y enough- reli gious beli efs. Each of the great religious divisions of hu­
ma uit y corresponds, in effect •... to a particul ar mode of existence and of indus­
trilli llct ivi t y. " Mi chel Chevali er. Du ( Paris, 1852), p. 13. [GI 3a, l )
Frum t.he fi nll cha pt er of Cnpifnl: " A cOllllllodity ap pears, at first sight. a very
tri vial thing II lId easi.ly understootl. 118 analysis shows that in reality it is a very
(Iueer thing. abounding ill metaphysicai li ubdeti es and theologicailliceties. So far
as it is a value in use, there is nothing mysterious abullt it. . . . The form or wood is
altered hy making a t abl e out of it; ncw: rtlleles8, table remains wood, an
ordinary mat erial thing. As soon as it stcps forth as cOlllmodity, however, it is
transforlll ed int o alllat crial immateri al thing. It not only stands with its feet on the
ground, but . in the face of all other comlll O(lities, it stands on ita Il ead . and out of
it s wOO(l en bra in it evolves noti ons more whimsically than if il had suddenly begun
10 dauce:-:' Ci ted in Franz Mehring, " Ka rl Marx und das Gleichnis," in Karl
M(lrx (115 Dellker, Mcn.scll , IIfU/ RevolufiOlliir, ed. Rjazanov (Vienna and Berlin
(1928» , p. 57 (first puhlished in Die "eue Zeit, March 13, 1908). (GI3a,2)
Henan compares Ihe world exhibitions to the great Cr eek feslivals, the Olympian
games, and the Panathenaea. But in contrast to these, the world exhibitions lack
poclry. " Twice, Europe hil S gOlle off to view the merchalldise and to compare
products and material s; and on returning from this new kind of pilgrimage, no one
has complained of missing anything." Some pages later: " Our century tends to­
ward neither the good nor the bad; it tends loward the mediocre. Whal succeeds in
e,'ery endeavor nowadays is mediocrit y." Ernest Henan, Eu oi.s de morale et de
critique ( Paris. 1859), PI' . 356-357, 373 ("Lu Poesie de n : xposition"). [GI3a,3)
Hashish villion in the casino at Aix-la-ChalH!lIe. '"'The ga llling la bl e at Aix-Ia­
Chapelle is nothing short of an international congress, where the coins of all king­
doms and all countries are welcome.... A storm of Leopolds . Friedrich Wilhelms,
Queen Vi ctorias, and Napolcons rain down ... on the l abl e. Looking over this
shining alluvium, J thought I could see ... the effigies of the sovereigns ... irrevo­
cably fade from their respective ecus, guineas, or ducal s, to make room for otber
visages entirely unknown 10 me. A great many of these faces ... wore grimaces .. .
of vexation, of grOOtI , or of fur y. There were happy ones 100, but only a few ... .
Soon thi s phenomenon ... grew dim ami passed away, and anOlher sort of vision,
110 less extraordinary, now loomed before me .... The bourgeois effi pes which
had suppl anted the monarchll began themselves to move about .....ithin the metallic
di sks ... that confined them. Before long, they had separaled from the disks. They
appeared in full relief; then their heads burgeone<1oul into rounded forms. They
had taken 0 11 .•• nol only faces but living fl esh. They had all sprung Lilliputian
Ever ything assumed a shalH! ... somehow or olher ; and cr eatures exactl y
like us, except for their siZe, ... began to enliven the gamill g tahle , from whi ch all
currency had vani shed. I heard the ring of coins struck by the steel of the crou­
pier's rake , hut thi s was all that remained of the old resollance .. . or louis and
ticus, whicll Ilud become men. These poor myrmidons were now laking to their
heels, franti c lit the approach of the murderous rake of the croupier; but escape
..... as impossible ... . Then ... the d ..... arfish sta kes, ohliged to ad mil defeat, .....ere
ruthlessly cll pture(l hy the fUla l rake, ..... lli cll gat here(1 them inlo the croupier'!
cl ut ching halld . The croupi er-how horril,IC!-IOok up each smull hody {Illintil y
hetween his linger s and de' ·ou.red il ..... ith gusto. I.n Icss thun half Iln hour, I sa .....
some half-tl ozen of these imprudent LiUipulianli Imrleo.l intu the ahY8ll of this lerri­
hie 101nb.... 8111 what appallctl me the mosl was thai , on r ni sing my (alto­
gcther by chance) to the ga lJcry surroundiJl g this vall ey of <Iealh, I nOl iced nOI jusl
all extraordinary likeness but a complete identit y betwCtln the several kingpins
playing the life-sho:ed game and the miniature humans struggling there 0 11 the ta­
hi e.... What ', more, these kingpins ... appeared 10 me ... t o collapse in des­
peration precisel y as their childlike facsimiles were overtaken by til e fOrlni<lable
rake. They sccmed to share ... aU the sensations of their lillie double; and never,
for as long as I live, will I forget the look and the gesture-full of hatred and
despair-which one of those gamblers di re<: ted toward the bank at the ver y mo­
ment that his tiny simulacrum, coralled by the rake, went to satisfy the ravenous
appetite of til e croupier." Felix Mornand, La Vie des eallX (Paris, 1862), pp. 219­
22 1 ("Aix-Ia-Cbapelle"). (CI4)
It " 'oul? useful to the way Grandville portrays machines to the way
Chevalier, III 1852, still speaks of the railroad. He calculates that tv.·o locomo­
tives, having a total of 400 horsepower, would correspond to 800 acrual horses.
How would il be possible to harness them up? How supply the fodder? And, in a
note, he adds: "It must also be kept in mind that horses of flesh and blood have
to rest after a brief journey; so that to furnish the same service as a locomotive
,
one must have on hand a very large number of animals." Michel Chevalier
Chemins def": Extrail du dicliontuziT( de l 'tconomi( politiqu( (Paris, 1852), p. 10. '
[C14a,l ]
The principles informing the exhibition of objects ill t.he Calcrie des MnchinCi of
1867 were derived from Le Play. [GI4a,2]
A divinatory representation of architectural aspects of the later world exhibitions
is found in Gogol's essay "On Present-Day Architecture," which appeared in the
mid-lbirties in his collection ATah(JqU(J. "Away with this academicism which
commands that buildings be built all one size and in one stylel A city should
consist of many different styles of building, if we wish it to be pleasing to the eye.
Let as many contrasting styles combine there as possible! Let the solemn Gothic
and the richly embellished Bytantine arise in the same street, alongside colossal
Egyptian halls and elegantly proportioned Greek structures! Let us see there the
slightly concave milk·white cupola, the soaring church steeple, the oriental miter,
the Italianate fl at roof, the steep and heavily ornamented Flemish roof, dIe quad­
rilateral pyramid, the cylindrical column, the faceted obelisk!"Z6 Nikolai Gogol,
"Sur du temps present," cited in W1adimir \\kidlc, Ul Abdllu
d'AriJti( (paris pp. 162-163 de I'art") . [GI 4a,3)
ref"r8 to the folk wis<i umthat for some time <Iefined "Civiliza tion" as
Ie mOllde (I rebollrs <I he world (G 14a.4)
Fourier Cel llnOI resist <lcKribing a hunquel held on the bank8 of t.he Euphrlli cs 10
honor Ihe victors in hOlh a cOmpetilion among l'.Calous dam workcrs (600,000) alld
a cont est of paUr y The 600,000 utMete8 of indu8try are furnished with
300,000 boules of c1lumpugnc, whosc corks, III a signal from the "command
tower," arc 11 11 popped simult aneously. To echo throughollt the " mountains of the
Euphrate8. " Cited in <Armand and> Mauhl<anc, Fourier (Paris, 1937», vol. 2,
pp. 178-179. [GI4a,5]
"Poor sw-s! Their role of resplendence is really a role of sacrifice. Creators and
servants of the productive power of the planets, they possess none of their own
and resign themselves to and monotonous career of providing
torchlight. They have luster wuhout enjoyment; behind them shelter, invisible,
the living crearures. These slavc-queens are nevenheless of the same stuff as their
happy subjectS.... Dazzling flames today, they will one day be dark and cold,
and only as planets can they be reborn to life after the shock that has volati1i.z.ed
the retinue and its queen into a nebula." A. Blanqui, L'EIm/iti a;tru (Paris,
1872), pp. 69-70. Compare Goethe: "Euch bedaur' ich, ungliickselge Sterne"
d pity you, unhappy [G IS,I)
"The sacristy, the stock exchange, and the harracks-those three musty lairs tbat
together vomit night , miser y, and denth upon the nati ons. October 1869." Auguste
Blanqui , Critit/lle socinie (Paris, 1885), vol. 2, p. 351 ("f.' ragments et notes").
[Gl5,']
"A rich deat h is 11 closed abyn. " From the fifti es. Auguste Blanqui, Critique so­
ciule (Paris, 1885), vol. 2, p. 315 (""' ragments et not es"). [CI5,3)
An image d 'Epinal by Sell erie shows the world exhibition of 1855.
[GI 5,' ]
Elements of intoXication at work in the detective novel, whose mechanism is
described by Caillois (in (em u that recall the world of the hashish eater): "The
characters of the childish inlagination and a prevailing artificiality hold sway over
this vivid world. Nothing happens here that is not long premeditated;
nothing to appearances. Rather, each thing has been prepared for
use at the nght moment by the omnipotent hero who wields power over it.
recognize in all this the Paris of the serial installments of FantOmllJ." Roger Cail­
lois, mythe modeme," NouudJe R(uu(/ra1lfaiu, 25, no. 284 (May 1, 1937),
p.688. [GI5,5]
" Every day I SLoe passing heneuth Ill y will<low II certain ntlluher of Kalmueks,
Osages, Ilidialls, 111111 uncicllt Crl:eks, alllllorc or less Purisianize(I. "
Charles Baudclllin·, Oeu vres. <",I. and uli nOlate<1 hy Y.-G. l..e Dant ec (Paris,
1932),> "01. 2, p. 99 (--5alon de IK46:' section 7, " Dc I'Idcal et du
[GI5.6)
Ad" cr tisiJI g IIml t'r til e EIIIJlin' , uccording to Fenliruu1<1 Brunot. Ili!ltoire de I I I
IU1Ig uefrtllH;uise de$ origi1les ii 1900. vol. 9, La Rewilll.iofl el I'EmpiTe. part 9,
" Les Evell ements, les institutions et la langue" (Paris, 1937): " We shall freely
imagi ne tlull a mall of geniuli conc:eived the idea of ellll hrining, wi thin the banality
uf the vernacular, certain vocahles calcul ated 10 seduce readers alltl buyer ,., and
Ihat he cho5e Greek 1I 0t onl y beca use il furllishe,. ine:dlllllstihi e resources to work
wi th 11111 also IleCalue, less widel y known than Lati n. it has the advuntage of being
. . . to a geller ation le,.s l'ersed in the study of allcieot
Gn:ece.... Onl y, we know neither who this man wa s, nor wbat his nati onality
might he. lI or even whether he exi sted or not. Let us suppose that ... Greek words
ga ined currency Iiule by little until, one day, ... the idea ... was horn ... that,
by their own intrinsic virtue, they could serve for advertising ... . I myself would
like 10 think that .. . several generations and several nati OIi S went into the making
of that verhal billboard, the Greek monster that enti Cefl hy lI urprise. I believe it
wall during the el)(}Ch I' m speaking of that the movement began to take shape....
The age of 'comageni c' hair oil had arri l'ed." Pp. 1229- 1230 ("Lea Causes du
tri omphe du grec"). [eI5a,l)
"What would a modern Winckelmann say. were he confront ed by a product
from China-sometbing strange, bizarre, contorted in forlll , intense in color, and
somelinles so delicate as to be almost evanescent ? It is, neverthel ess, an example of
universal beauty. But in order to under stand it , the criti c, the spectator, must
effect within himself a mysterious transformatioo; and by lIIt!ans of a phenomenon
uf the will acting on the imagination, he must learn by himself to particiJl ate in the
milieu whi ch has given birth to this strange flowering. " Further along, 0 11 the same
page, al)pear "those mysterious f1 0wcn whose deep color enslaves the eye and
tall tali:res it with its shape." Charles Baudelaire, Oeu vres, <ed. L.e Dantec (Paris,
1932),) vol. 2, PI" 144-145 (" EXIJOsit ioli universeUc. 1855").:<! (G15a,2)
" In French poetry before Baudelaire, as ill the poetry of Europe gencraUy, the
style lind accent s of the Orient were never more Ihall a faintly puerile and facti­
tious ga me. With Les Fk ur$ du m(l/ , the strange color ill not produced without a
kt.'t; 1I sense of escape. Baudel aire ... invites himself to absence .... In making a
journey, he gives us the feel of ... unexpl ored nature. where the tral'eler parts
company with himself.... Doubtlcll8, he leaves the mind and spirit ull changed;
but he presents a new vision of his soul. It is tropical, Mrican, black, enslaved.
Here is the t.rue country, an actual Africa, an authentic Indies." Andre Suares,
Prefuce to Charles Baudel aire, Les f'lell rs till mul (Paris, 1933). JlJl . xXl'- xxvi i.
IGlO,! ]
Prostitution of space in hashish, where it serves for all that has been:
lO
IG!',' ]
Grandville's masking of nature with the fashions of midccntury- nature under·
stood as the cosmos, as well as the world of animals and plants-lets history, in
th e guise of fashion, be derived from the eternal cycle of nature. \oVhen Grand·
ville presents a new fan as the "fan of Iris," when the Milky Way appears as an
"avenue" illwninated at night by gas lamps, when "the moon (a self.portrait)"
reposes. 011 fashionable cushions instead of on clouds, then history is being
secuJanzed and dra'Nll Into a natural COntext as relentl essly as it was three hun­
dred years earlier with allegory. (G16,3)
The planetary fashions of Grandville arc: so many parodies, drawn by nature, of
human history. Grandville's harlequinades rum into Blanqui's plaintive ballads.
IG!',' ]
"The exhibitions li re Ihe onl y proJlerl y modern festi vals." Herlll ann
Lotze, Mi­
J,' rokosmos, vol. 3 (Lei pzig, 1864), p. ?
IG!',S]
The world exhibitions were training schools in which the masses, barred from
consuming, learned empathy with exchange value. "Look at everything; touch
nothing." IG16,6)
The entertainment industry refines and multiplies the varieties of reactive behav.
ior the In this way, it makes them ripe for the workings of
advem smg. The link between this industry and the world exhibitions is thus well
established. (G16,7)
Proposal for urban planning in Paris: " It would bC! advillahl e to vary the forms of
the houses and, as ror the districts , to employ different architectur al orders, even
those in no way clallll ical--f;uch as tbe Gothi c, Turkish, Chinese, Egyptian, Bur­
mese, and so forth." Anu!dee dC! Tissot, Paris el Lone/res compares (Paris, 1830),
p. 150.-The architecture of future exhibitions! (G16a,1)
" As loog as thi s ull spe"kable COlistructioll [the Palace of Industry] survives, ... I
shall take satisfaction in renoull cing the title ' man or leiters' . ... Art and ilulus­
try! Yes, it was in fact for them alone thai , in 1855, this impossible tangle of
galleries was reserved, thi s jumble where the poor writ er s have not evt:n been
granted six square feet- the space of a grave! Glory to thee, 0 Stati oner. , ..
Mount to the Capitol, 0 Publisher .. . ! Tri umph, you art ists alld industri als, you
who ha ve bad the honors and the profit of a world exhibiti on, whereas poor Iit t:r a­
ture. ' . . " (Pl' . v-vi ). "A world exhibition for the man of leiter s, a Crystal PalacC!
for the author-mollistt:!" Whisperings of a scurril ous demon whom Babou , accord­
ing to his " Lettre uCharles Assdineau," is supposed to have encount ered one da y
alollg the Champs- Elysees. Hippolyte Bahol! . Les Hi re/IS imlOcelils (Pllris, 1858),
p. xiv. [G16a.2)
Exhihiti ons. "Such lrunsitory install ations, as a rule. have had 110 infiuelll.:e 011 the
configuratiull or ci ties.... It is otherwise ... in Paris. Precillcl y in Ihe racl tllUt
here giant exhibitioll s could he sel up in the middle of town. and thai nearl y always
they would leave hehind a IIl 01l1ll1l t:nt well suilt:!1 to 1.lIe ci ty's gent:ral aSIH.'c: t- pre­
cisely in this, one CIHl re<:ognize the bl essing of a great original layout ami of a
continuing t raditi on of urball planning. Paris could . .. orlilanize even the m08t
immense exhibition st) as t o be ... acceuwle from the Pl ace de la COll corde. Al ong
the quays leading west from this square, for a distance of kilometers, the curbs
have beell set back from t.he ri ver in ~ u c h a way that vcr y wide lanes a rc olMmed,
whi ch, abundantl y pl alil ed with rows of trees, make for the loveli est ponihle
cxhillitioll routes. " Frit z Stahl , Paris (Berlin (1929), p. 62. [GI6a,3[
D
[The Collector]
All these old things have a moral value.
- Charles Baudclain:
L
I believe ... in my soul: the 1hing.
- Unn Deubel, (kIlVrtJ (Paris, 1929), p. 193
Here was the last refuge of those infant prodigies that saw the light of day at the
time of the world exhibitions: the briefcase with interior lighting, the meter·long
pocket knife, or the patented umbrella handle with built-in watch and revolver.
And near the degenerate giant creatures, aborted and broken-down matter. ~
followed the narrow dark corridor to where-between a discount bookstore, in
which dusty tied-up bundles tell of all sorts of failure, and a shop selling only
buttons (mother-of-pearl and the kind that in Pam are called defan/aisie) - tbere
stood a SOrt of salon. On the pale-colored wallpaper full of figures and busts
shone a gas lamp. By its light, an old woman sat reading. They say she has been
there alone for years, ,and collects sets of teeth "in gold, in wax, and broken."
Since that day, moreover, we know where Doctor Miracle gOt the wax out of
which he fashioned Olympia.' 0 Dolls 0 {Hl ,l )
"The crowd throngs to the Passage Vi vienne, where people never feel conspicu­
ous, and deserts the Passage Colbert, where they feel perhaps too conspicuous.
At a certain point, an altempt was made to entice the crowd back by filling the
rotunda each evening with hannonious music, which emanated invisibly from
the ..vindows of a mezzanine. But the crowd came to put its nose in at the door
and did not enter, suspecting in this novelty a conspiracy against its customs and
routine pleasures." Le Livre des (enl-e/-ulI, vol. IO (Paris, 1833), p. 58. Fifteen
years ago, a similar altempt was made- likewise in vain-to boost the (Berlim
department store W. ""=.rtheim. Concerts were given in the great arcade that ran
through it. [1-11.21
Never Inlst what writers say about their own writings. When Zola undertook to
defend his 7h&tse Raquin against hostile cri tics, he explained that his book was a
scientific study of the temperaments. H is task had been to show, in an example,
exaoJy how the sanguine and the nervous temperaments act 011 one another-to
the derrimem of each. But this explanation could satisfy no one. Nor does it
explain the admixture of colportage, the bloodthirstiness, the cinematic goriness
of the aclion. Whidl-by no accident- takes place in an arcade.
3
If this book
really expounds something scientifically, then it"s the death of the Paris arcades,
the decay of a type of architecture. The book' s annosphere is saturated with the
poisons of this process: its people drop like flies. [Hl ,3]
In 1893, tile cot:t1I1t.'S were dri\'ell rrom the arcaJ e!l. [HI.']
Music secms to have settled into these spaces only with their decline, only as the
orchestras themselves began to seem old-fashioned in comparison to the new
mechanical music. So that, in fact, these orchestras wouJd just as soon have taken
refuge there. (Tbe "theatrophone" in the arcades was, in certain respects, the
forerunner of the gramophone.) Nevertheless, there was music that confomled
to the spirit of the arcades-a panoramic music, such as can be heard today only
in old-fashioned genteel concerts like those of the casino orchestra in Monte
Carlo: the panoramic compositions of <Fe1iciem David, for example-Le Dis(rt,
ChriJtoph Colomb, Hmulallum. When, in the 1860s (?), an Arab political delega­
tion came to Paris, the city was very proud to be able to mount a perfonnance of
u Dis(rt for them in the great Theatre. de l'Opera (?). [Ht ,S)
"Cill ooruma!l. The Grantl Globe Celeste: a gigantic sphere rorty-six meters in di - /
allleter, where you can hear the music or Sai nt -SaclI l!." JuJes Claretie, Ln Vie ii
"nri.t 1900 (Parill, 1901), p. 61. 0 Diorallla 0 [Ht ,6]
Often these inner spaces harbor an tiquated trades, and even those that are
thoroughly up to date will acquire in them something obsolete. They are the site
of infonnation bureaus and detective agencies, which there, in the gloomy light
of the upper galleries, follow the trail of the past. In hairdressers' windows, you
can see the last women with long hair. TIley have rich.ly undulating masses of
hair, which are "pennanent waves," petrified coiffures. They ought to dedicate
small votive plaques to those who made a special world of these buildings-to
Baudelaire and Odilon Redon, whose very name sounds like an all tOO well­
tumed ringlet. Instead, they have been betrayed and sold, and the head of
Salome made into an omament-u that which dreanlS of the console there below
is not the embalmed head of Anna Czyllak.' And while these things are petrified,
the masonry of the walls above has become brittle. Brittle, tOO, are 0 Mirrors 0
<Sec Rl ,3.> [Hla, l]
f rWhat is decisive in collecting is thal the object is detached from all its original
functions in order to enter into tll e closest conceivable relation to things of the
same kind. TIlis relation is the diametric opposite of any utility, and falls into the
peculiar category of completeness. What is this "completeness"? It is a grand
attempt to overcome the wholly irrational character of the object's mere presence
at hand through its integration into a new, expressly historical system:
the collection. And for the true coll ector, every single thing in this system be­
comes an encyclopedia of all knowledge of the epoch, the landscape, the indus­
try, and the owner from which it comes. It is the deepest enchantment of the
collector to enclose the particular item within a magic circle, where:, as a last
shudder runs throUgll it (the shudder of being acquired), it tums to stone_ Every­
thing remembered, everything thought, everything conscious becomes socle,
frame, pedestal, seal of his possession. It must not be assumed that the collector
,
in panirular, wouJd find anything strange in the topru hyjxrouranios-that place
beyond the heavens which, for shelters the unchangeable archetypes of
things. He loses hinlSelf, assuredly. But he has the strength to pull himself up
again by nothing more than a straw; and from out of the sea of fog that envelops
his senses rises the newly acquired piece, like an island.-Collecting is a fonn of
practical memory, and of all the profane manifestations of "nearness" it is the
most binding. Thus, in a certain sense, the smallest act of political reBection
makes for an epoch in the antiques business. construct here: an aJann clock
that rouses the kitsch of the previous century to "assembly." [Hla,2]
Extinct nature: the shell shop in the arcadcs. In "The Pilot's Trials," Strindberg
tells of "an arcade ,vith brighcly lit shops." "Then he went on into the arcade ....
Tho-e was every possible kind of shop, but not a souJ to be seen, either behind or
before the counters. After a while he stopped in from of a big window in which
there was a whole display of shells. As the door was open, he went in. From Boor
to ceiling there were rows of shells of every kind, collected from all the seas of the
world. No one was in, but there was a ring of tobacco smoke in the air .... So he
began his walk again, following the blue and white carpet. The passage wasn't
Straight but winding, so that you could never see the end of it; and there were
always fresh shops there, but no people; and the shopkeepers were not to be
seen." The unfathomability of the moribund arcades is a characteristic motif.
Strindberg, Miirchen (Munich and Berlin, 1917), pp. 52-53, 59.' [Hla,3J
One must make one' s way through us Fleurs du ma/with a sense for how things
are raised to allegory. The use of uppercase lettering should be followed carefully.
[HJa,4)
At the conclusion of Malihe el mimQire, Bergson develops the idea that perception
is a function of time. If, let us say, ......e were to live vis-a.-vis some things more
calml y and vis-a-vis others more rapidly, according to a different rhythm, there
would be nothing "subsistent" for us, but instead everything would happen right
before our eyes; everything would strike us. But this is the way things are fOT the 1-1
great collector. They strike him. How he hinuelf pursues and encounters them,
what cllanges in the eJl5emble of items are effected by a newly supervening
item- aU this shows him his affairs in constant flux. Here, the Paris arcades are
examined as though they were properties in the hand of a collector. (At bottom,
we may say, the coll ector lives a piece of dream life. For in the dream, tOO, the
rhythm of perception and experience is aJtered in such a way that everything­
even the seemingly most neurraJ-comes to strike us ; everything concerns us. In
order to understand the arcades from the ground up, we sink them intO the
deepest stratum of the dream; we speak of them as though they had struck us.)
(Hla.5]
"Your understanding of allegory assumes proportions hitherto unknown to you;
I will note, in that allegory- long an object of our scorn because of
maladroit painters, but in reality a most Jpin'luaJ an fonn, one of the earliest and
most natural forms of poetry-resumes its legitimate dominion in a mind illumi­
nated by intoxication." Charles Baudelaire, Ul Paradis artfficieb (Paris, 1917),
p. 73.' (On the basis of what follows, it cannot be doubted that Baudelaire indeed
had allegory and not symbol in mind. The passage is taken from the chapter on
hashish.) The collector as allegorist. 0 Hashish 0 [H2, I]
"The publication 1864>o( L'Uisroirede la societefram;aisependontlo Revola­
tion el SOlU k Directoire opens the era of the curio--and the word 'curio' . hould
1I0t be taken as pejorative. 1.11 those days, the historical curio was called a ' reli c. , ..
Hemy de GOllnllollt , Le Deuxiiime Livre des "'(m/lles (Paris, 1924), p. 259. This
passage concerns a work hy Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. (H2,2]
The true method of making things present is to n:present them in our space (not
to n=present ourselves in their space). (!be collector does just this, and so does I
lhe anecdote.) Thus represented, the things allow no mediating construction
from out of "large contexts." The same method applies, in essence, to the consid­
eration of great things from the past- the cathedral of Chartres, the temple of
Paestum-when, that is, a favorable prospect presents itself: the method of re­
ceiving the things into OUT space. "'* don' t displace our being into theirs; they

Fundamentally a very odd fact- that collector's items as such were produced
industrially. Since when? It would be necessary to investigate the various fash­
ions that governed collecting in the nineteenth century. Characteristic of the
Biedemlcier period (is this also the case in France?) is the mania for cups and
saucers. "Parents, childn:n, friends, relatives, superiors, and subordinates make
lheir feelings known through cups and saucers. The cup is the preferred gift, the
most popular kind of knickknack for a room. Just as Friedrich WlIhclm III filled
his study with pyramids of porcelain cups, the ordinary citizen collccted, in the
cups and sauccrs of his sideboard, the memory of the most important events, the
most precious hours, of his life." Max von Boehn, Die MOlk im XIX. Jahrhun­
(Jut, vol. 2 (Munich, 1907), p. 136. [H2,4]
Possession and having are allied with the tactile, and stand in a certain opposition
to the optical. CoUcctors are beings with tactile instincts. Moreover, with the
receOl tum away from naturalism, the primacy of the optical that was detenni ­
nate for the previous century has come to an end. 0 Flftneur OThe Baneur optical,
the collector tactile.' (H2 .5J
Broken-down matter: the elevation of the commodity to the status of allegory.
Allegory and the fetish character of the conullodity. (H2,6]
O ne may start from the fact that the true collector detaches the object from its
functionaJ relations. But that is hardly an exhaustive description of this remark­
able mode of behavioT. For isn' t this the foundation (to speak with Kant and
Schopenhauer) of that "disinterested" contemplation by virtue of which the col­
lectoT attains to an unequaled view of the object-a view which takes in more,
and other, than that of the profane owner and which we would do best to
compare to the gaze of the great physiognomist? But how his eye comes to rest
on the object is a matter elucidated much mon: sharply through another consid­
eration. It must be kept in mind that, for the collector, the world is present, and
indeed orden=d, in each of his objectS. Ordered, however, according to a surpris­
ing and, for the profane understanding, incomprehensible connection. lbis con­
nection stands to the customary ordering and schcmatization of things something
as their arrangement in the dictionary stands to a natural arrangement. "'* need
only n:call what importance a particular collector attaches not only to his object
but also to its entire past, whether this concerns the origin and objective charac­
teristics of the thing or the details of its ostensibly extemal history: previous
owners, price of purchase, ClUTCIlt value, and so on. All of these-the "objective"
data together with the other-come together, for the true collector, in every
single one of his possessions, to foml a whole magic encyclopedia, a world order,
whose outline is the fate of his object. Here, therefore, within this circumscribed
field, we can understand how great physiognomists (and collectors are physiog­
nomists of the world of things) become interpreters of fate. It suffices to observe
JUSt one collector as he handles the items in his showcase. No sooner does he
hold them in his hand than he appears inspired by them and seems to look
through them into their distance, like an augur. {It would be interesting to study
bibliophile as the only type of collector who has n Ot. completcly withdrawn
his treasures from their functional context. ) [H2.7; H2a,1]
The great coUector Pachinger, \o\blfskch1's friend, has put together a collection
its array of proscribed and damaged objectS, rivals the Figdor collection
Vienna. He hardly knows any more how things stand in the \\--add; explains to
visitors- alongside the most antique implements- the use of pocket handker­
duefs, hand mirrors, and the like. It is related of him lhat, one day, as he was
crossing the Stachus, he stooped to pick something up. Before him lay an object
he had been pursuing for weeks : a misprinted streetcar ticket that had been in
circulation for only a few hours. (H2a,2j
An apology for the collector ought not to overlook this invective: "Avarice and
old age, remarks Cui Patin, are aJways in collusion. With individuaJs as with
societies, the: need to accumul ate is one of the signs of approaching death. TIlls is
confinned in the acute stages of prtparalysis. There is also the mania for collec­
tion, known in neurology as 'collcctionism,' I From the collection of hairpins to
the cardboard box bearing the inscription: 'Small bits of string are useless?" us
&pt Pichis (apilaux (Paris, 1929), pp. 26-27 (paul Morand, "L'Avarice"). But .
compare collecting donc by children! [H2a,3)
" I am 1I0t sure I . hould ha\-,been 80 thoroughl y possessed by Ihis one . uhj ecl . but
=
(or the heaps of fantastic things I hall seen huddled together in the curi osit y.
dealer 's warehouse. These, crowding 0 11 my mind, in connection wi th the child,
and gathering round her. 8 8 it were, brought her condition palpabl y before me. I
had her image. without any effort of imagination, surrounded and beset by ever y­
thing thai was for eign to il8 nature, and farthest from the sympathie. of
her sex a nd age. If tJlelle helps to my fancy had all been wanting, and I had been
forced to imagine her in a common chamber, with nothing unusual or uncouth in
its appearance, it is very probable that ( should have been less impressed with her
strange and solitary st ale. All it was, she seemed to exist in a kind of all egory."
Charl es Dickens, Ocr RlIritiitetlladen (Leipzig, ed. Insel), pp. 18-19.
9
{H2a, 4]
Wiesengrund, in Ill! unpublished essay on The Old Curiosity Shop, by Di cken. :
" Nell's death is decided in the sentence that reads: ' There were some triJlell
there--poor useless thinp-that she wouJd have liked to take away; but that was I
impou ible.' ... Yet Dickens recognized that the posllibilit y of t ransiti on and dia­
lecti cal rescue was inherent in this world of things, this lost , rejected world; and he
exprel8ed it , hett er t.hon Romantic nature-worship was ever able to do. ill the
powerful allegory of money with which the depiction o( the industrial cit y ends:
' ... two old , hattered, smoke-encrusted penny pieces. Who know. but they shone
as bri ghtl y in the eyes o( angels , as golden gifts that have been chronicled on
tombs?""O
[H2. ,5]
" Most enthusiasts let themselves be guided by chance in forming their collection,
li ke bibliophile. in their browsing .... !\t . Thiers has proceeded ot herwise: hefore
auembling his collection. he (ormed it as a whole in his head; he laid out his plan
in advance. and he has slJelit thirt y years executing it .... M. Thiers p088esse.
what he want ed to pOlIse.s.... And what was the point? To arrange a round him­
self 8 luinialure of the uni verse--that is, to gather, within an ell vironmellt o( eight y
melers. HOllle and Florence, Pompeii and Venice, Dresden and the Hague,
the Vaticall li nd the Eseorill. l , the British Museum and Ihe Hermitage, the A1II/Hu­
hra lind the Summer ['lI laee .... Anti M. Thiers has been ahle t u rcalize thi s
pruject with only modcSI expenditures malle each yell r over a thirty- yellr I)C­
riod .... Seeki ng. ill IHlrtieul li r. lu allurn Ihe wall!! u( his residence with t.he III OSI
pn·(,ious sou\'eni u of his voyages. M. Thiers had reduct...1 copies made o( the
(a lnous paintings .... Allil Ull enl ering his hOlne, you find yourself illllll ctlill.tel y
i urroundl:d lI y In ai>terl'it."t:cs creal t...J in hal y during the age o( ko X. The wall
racing the occupietl by The W Il ' Judgme",. hUli g belween Dispute
of t/i e 1I0ly Sucrulllc"t 811tl l 'lI e ScllOol ofA,/i efi li. Titian', ASIlllmpti() fI adorns the
nUHll d piece, belwt.'1!n 'nle Commullioll ofS11itl' J erome and Til e Trtl1l1lftgllration.
l '/i e Mm/omlll ofSailll SiXIUll ll1akes a pair with SlIi1ll Cecila , alltl on the pilaster
arc frallIell the Sibyls o( Haphad , IJelwt.'Cu the aud the picture repre­
S(' IILillg Gregory IX the decreta Is to a delegate o( the Consistory... .
Thest· copies all beillg in accordance wilh the satlle scale, or nearly so, .. .
t he eye discu\'ers ill tll em, with pleasure, Ihe relative proportions o( the origi nals .
Tht'y arc painted in ",·ater culor." Charlell Blanc, Le Cabinet rle M. Thiers (Paris.
ISiI ). PI" 16-18. {H3, 1]
"Casimir Peri er sai(1 one (l ay, while viewing the art collection o( an illustri ous
cnlliu.s iast . .. ; ' All thcse are very pretty- but they're donnant capi­
tal.· ... Today, ... one could say 10 Casimir Perier ... that ... paintings ... ,
""hen t hey are indeed authentic, that drawings, when recognizabl y by the hand o(
II masler, ... sleep a sleep that is restorati ve alld profitable .... The ... sale o(
the curiosities and paintill gs of Monsieur n.... has proven in round figuretl that
works of genius possess a value just as solid as the Orleans <Railroad Co.) and a
little more than bonded warchouses." Charles Blanc, Le l'resor de la en ...
riosite, vol. 2 (Paris, 1858), p. 578. [H3,2]
The positiut countertype to the collector-which also, insofar as it entails the
liberation of things from the drudgery of being useful, represents the conswruna­
tion of the coll ector-can be deduced from these words of Marx: "Private prop­
erty has made us so stupid and inert that an obj ect is ours only when \\'C have it,
when it exists as capital for us, or when ... we use it." Karl Marx, Der historische
Malmalismus, in Die Friihschnj/en, ed. Landshut and Mayer (Lcipzigd932) , vol.
1, p. 299 ("' NationaJokonomie und Philosophie"). 11 (H3a,l]
"All the physical a nd intell ectual sell 8e8 have been repl aced by t he simple ali ena·
li on o( all these senses, the .cnse or ha ving . ... (On the category of lIa ving , see
1·less in Twenty-One SlI eets)." Karl Man, Der histori.tche Materiolumw
(Leipzig), vol. I, p. 300 ("Nati onaWkonomie IIlul PlwosoJlhie").I! {H3a,2]
" 1 can, in practi ce. reillte myself humanly t o an obj et! t only if the object relates
itsd(. hUJlIanl y 10 ma n." Karl Marx, Der hillfori.sche Ma' eriaiismull (Leipzig), vol.
I. p. 300 ("Nn ti onaWkunolnic lIlItl £·hilosophie").'l [H3a,3]
The cull ections of Alt'): lIndre dn SOlllmel'lIni in the holdings o( the l\1usce Cluny.
[H3a,4]
-n IC quodlibet has somelhing of the genius of both collector and fhincur.
{H3a.5]
Tbe collector actualizes latent archaic represelltations of property. These repre·
sentations lUay in fact be COlmectcd wilh taboo, as the following remark indio
cates: "It ... is ... certain that taboo is the primitive foml of propeny. At first
-
emotively and ' sincerely; then as a routine legal process, declaring something
taboo would have constituted a title. To appropriate to oneself an object is to
render it sacred and redoubtable to others ; it is to make it ' participate' in oneself. ...
N. Gutcmmn and H . Lefebvre, In CollJa'ellu lIIJJtifite (Paris, 1936), p. 228.
[H3a,6}
P-"d ssageli li y Marx from "NalionaWkollomie und Philosophi c": " Private property
=
hsslIlade 111180 8tupid and incrt"181 HII obje<: 1 ill ours only when we ho ve it. " " AU
the physical and intellectual !ell ses ... have been I'cplucetl oy the aliena.
tioll of all these senses, the sense of having. "I I Ciled in Hugo Fischer, Karl Marx
lind lci" VcrMiltnu zu StUll' lind WirflCh(ifi (Jella, 1932), p. 64. [H3a,7]
The ancestors of Balthazar Clacs were collectors. [H3a,8]
Models for Cousin Pons: Sommcrard, Suuvageot, Jacaze. (H3a,9]
The physiological side of collecting is important. In the analysis of this behavior,
it should not be overlooked that, with the nest-building of birds, collecting
quires a clear biological function. There is apparently an indication to this effect
in Vasari's treatise on architecture. Pavlov, too, is supposed to have occupied
himself with collecting. [H4,J)
Vasari is SUPI)osed to have maintained (in hi s treutise 011 architecture?) that
the term "grotesque" comes from the grolloc'll ill which collectors hoard their
treasures. [H4,2]
Collecting is a primal phenomenon of study: the srudent collects knowledgt=.
[H' ,3]
In elucidating the rdauon of medieval man to his affairs, Huizinga occasionally
adduces the literary genre of the "testament": "This literary fonn can be ...
appreciated only by someone who remembers that the people of the Middle Ages
were, in fact, accustomed to dispose of even the meanest [!l of their possessions
through a separate and detailed testament. A poor woman bequeathed her Sun­
day dress and cap to her parish, her bed to her godchild, a fur to her Ilurse, her
everyday dress to a beggar woman, and four pounds tournou (a sum which
constituted her entire fortune), together with an additional dress and cap, to the
Franciscan friars (Champion, ViI/on, vol. 2, p. 182). Shouldn' t we recognize here,
too, a quite trivial manifestation of the same cast of mind that sets up every case
of virtue as an eternal example and sees in every Qlstomary practice a divinely
willed ordinance?" J. Huizinga, Hu b;1 de; Mille/a/1m (Munich, 1928), p. 346Y
What strikes one mOSt about this noteworthy passage is that such a relation to
movables would perhaps no longer be possible in an ab'C of standardizcd mass
production. It would follow quitc naturally from th.is (0 ask whether or not the
fomlS of argumentation to which the author alludes, and indeed certain fonus of
Scholastic thought in general (appeal to hereditary authoritary), bdong together
wlth the fornlS of production. The collector develops a similar relationship with
his objects, whicll arc enricllcd through his knowledge of their origin and their
duration in history-a relationship that now seems archaic. [H4,4]
Perhaps the most deeply hidden motive of the person who collects can be de­
scribed this way: he takes up the struggle against dispersion. Right from the start,
the great collector is struck by the confusion, by the scatter, in which the things of
the world are found. It is the sanle spectacle that so preoccupied the men of the
Baroque; in particular, the world image of the allegorist cannOt be explained
apart from the passionate, distraught concern with this spectacle. The allegorist
is, as it were, the polar opposite of the collector. He has given up the attempt to
elucidate things through research into their properties and relations. He dis·
lodges things from their context and, from the outset, relies on his profundity to
illuminate their meaning. The collector, by contrast, brings together what be­
longs together; by keeping in mind their affinities and their succession in time, he
can eventually furnish infonnation about his objects. Nevertheless-and this is
more imponant than all the differences that may exist between them-in every
collector hides an allegorist, and in every allegorist a collector. As far as the
collector is concerned, his collection is never complete; for let him discover JUSt a
single piece missing, and everything he's collected remains a patchwork, which is
what things art for allegory from the beginning. On the other hand, the allege­
rist-for whom objects represent only keywords in a secret dictionary, which will
make known their meanings to the initiated-precisely the allegorist can never
have enough of things. With him, one thing is so little capable of taking the place
of another that no possible reSection suffices to foresee what meaning his profun­
dity m.ightlay claim to for each one of them.
I
' [H4a,1]
Animals (birds, ants), children, and old men as collectors. [H4a,2]
A SOrt of productive disorder is the canon of the mimcire inoo/cnlaire, as it is the
canon of the coll ector. "And I had already lived long enough so that, for more
than one of the human beings with whom I had come in contact, I found in
antipodal regions of my past memories another being to complete the picrurt ....
In much the sanle way, when an an lover is shown a panel of an altar screen, he
remembers in what church, museum, and private collection the other panels are
dispersed Oikewise, he finally succeeds, by following the catalogues of an sales or
frequenting antique shops, in finding the mate to the object he possesses and
thereby completing the pair, and so can reconstruct in his mind the predella and
the entire altar)." Marcel Proust, Le Temp; retrouui (paris), vol. 2, p. 158.
11
The
fIO/olltaire, on the olher hand, is a registry providing the object with a clas·
slficatory number behind which it disappears. "So now we've been there." ("I've
had an experience.") How the scatter of allegorical properties (the patchwork)
relates to this creative disorder is a question calling for further study. [HS,I]
I
[The Interior, The Trace]
" In 1830, Romanticism was gaining the upper hand in lit erature. It now invaded
archi tecture and placarded house fa-;ades with a fantastic gothicism, ODe aU too
often made of pasteboard. II in1lJO&ed itself on furniture making. ' AU of a l udden,'
lay. a relwrter on the exhibition of 1834, ' there is boundleu enthusiasm for
strangely shaped furniture. From old chiteaux, from furniture wareliou8e8 and
junk . hops, it has been dragged Ollt to embellish the salons, whi ch in every other
resped are modern....' Feeling inspired, furniture manufacturers have been
prodigal with their ' ogives 'and machicolations. ' You see beds and armoires bris­
tling with battlements, like thirteenth-century citadels.'" E. Levaueur, <Histoire
des claues ouvrieres et de l 'indlutrU! en France, de 1789 a1870 (Paris, 19(4), )
vol. 2, PI)' 206-207. [1I , 1]
Apropos of a medieval annoire, this interesting remark from Behne: "Movables
<furniture> quite clearly developed out of immovables <real estate)." The annoire
is compared to a "medieval fortre5s.Jwt as, in the latter, a tiny dwelling space is
surrounded in ever-widening rings by walls, ramparts, and moats, fanning a
gigantic outwork, so the contents of the drawers and shelves in the armoire are
overwhehned by a mighty outwork." Adolf Behne, N(ueJ Wolmen-N"eueJ Bauen
(Lcip,ig, 1927), pp. 59, 61-62. (ll ,']
The importance of movable property, as compared with immovable property.
Here our task is slightly easier. Easier to blaze a way intO the heart of things
abolished or superseded, in order to decipher the contours of the banal as picture
puuJe-in order to start a concealed William Tell from out of wooded entrails, or
in order to be able to answer the question, "Where is the bride in this picture?"
Picture puzzles, as schemata of dreamwork, were long ago discovered by psycho­
analysis. we,however, with a similar conviction, are less on the trail of the psyche
than on the u-ack of things. we seek the totemic tree of objects within the thicket
of primal history. The very last-the tOpmost-face on the tOtem pole is that of
kitsch. (11 .3]
1"l1e confrontation with furniture in Poe. Snuggle to awake from the collective
dream. [11 ,4]
How the interior defended itself against gaslight: "Almost all new houses have
gas today; it bums in the inner courtyards and on the stairs, though it does not
}'et have free admission to the apartments. It has been allowed into the antecham­
ber and sometimes even into the dining room, but it is not welcome in the
dra\ving room. Why not? It fades the wallpaper. "Ibat is the only reason I have
run across, and it carnes no weight at all." Du Camp, Paro, vol. 5, p. 309.
(II ,S]
Hessel speaks of the "dreamy epoch of bad taste." Yes, this epoch
the dream, was furnished in TIle alternation in styles­
Gothic, Persian, Renaissance, and so on-signified: that over the interior of the
middle-class dining room spreads a banquet room of Cesare Borgia's, or that OUt
of the boudoir of the mistress a Gothic chapel arises, or that the master's study, in
its iridescence, is transfomled into the chamber of a Persian prince. The photo­
montage that fixes such images for us corresponds to the most primitive percep­
tual tendency of these generations. Only gradually have the images among
which they lived detached themSelves and settled on signs, labels, posters, as the
figures of advertising. [II ,6J
A series of lithographs from 18<-) showed women reclining voluptuously on
ottomans in a draperied, crepuscular boudoir, and these prints bore inscriptions:
On the Banlts 0/the Tagtll, On the Banlu 0/tne Neva, On the Banlts rifthe &ine, and
so forth. The Guadalquivir, the Rhone, the Rhine, the AM, the Tamis-all had
their tum. lbat a national costume might have distinguished these female figures
one from another may be safely doubted. It was up to the ligende, the caption
inscribed beneath them, to conjure a fantasy landscape over the represented
interiors. [11,7]
To render the image of those salons where the gaze was enveloped in billowing
cu.rtains swollen cushions, where, before the eyes of the guests, full-length
lllJITOrS dISclosed church doors and settees were gondolas upon which gaslight
from a vitreow globe shone down like the moon. [11 ,8]
" We have witnessed til e unprec:edented- marriages bet .....een styles tha t olle would
have beli e\'ed eternall y incolllpatible: hats of ti le First Empire or the Restoration
worll with Louis XV jackets , gO\O'II S paired with high-heeled ankJe
boots-IlIHI. still heller, low-waisted coats wor n over high-wai sted ,Irenes." J ohll
I.es Elegonces de ia toiietl e (Pa ris), p. )(vi. [II a, I)
of differcnt t ypes (If traveling ear frOIll the curly yea rs of the railroad:
hcrlin (closed uml Olk:n). diligence, furnishcl l (·ouch. unfurni slled coach. 0 Iron
COII SIructiOIl 0 Il1 a,2]
" This year, too. spring arrive!1earlier lind more beautiful than ever. so thaI. to teU
lile truth, we could not rightl y remember the (:X.i SICli ce of winter in ti,ese parts. lIor
whether the fireplace wall there for any purpose other than supporting on illl
manlel the timepieces and candelabra that are known to ornament every room
here ; for tbe true Parisian would rather eat one course leu per day than forgo his
' mant elpiece arrangcmenl. ", Lebende Hilder "11$ den! modeN. en Puru, 4 voill.
(Cologne. 1863-1866), vol. 2, p. 369 (" Ein kai serliches Famiuenbild") . [lla,3]
1breshold magic. AI the entrance to the skating rink, to the pub, to the tennis
coun, to resort locations: Pt:TUllf:s. The hen that lays the golden praline-eggs, the
machine that stamps our names on nameplates, slot machines, fortunetelling
devices, and above all weighing devices (the Delphic gn6rhi seau(rm
1
of our day)­
- these guard the threshold. Oddly. such machines don't Sourish in the city, but
rather are a component of excursion sites, of beer gardens in the suburbs. And
when, in search of a little greenery, one heads for these places on a Sunday
afternoon, one is ruming as well to the mysterious thresholds. Of course, this
same magic prevails more covertly in the interior of the bourgeois dwelling.
Chairs beside an entrance, photogrp.phs Banking a doorway, are fallen housdlold
deities, and the violence they must appease grips our heans even today at each
ringing of the doorbell. Try, though, to withstand the violence. Alone in an
apartment, try not to bend to the insistent ringing. You will find it as difficuk-as
an exorcism. Like all magic substance, this too is once again reduced at some
point to sex-in pornography. Around 1830, Paris amused itself with obscene
lithos that featured sliding doors and windows. These were the Image; dite.s Ii
portu et iz fenitU5, by Numa Bassajet. [lIa,4]
Concerning the dreamy and, jf possible. oriental interior: " Everyone here dreams
of instant fortune; everyone alms to have , at one stroke, what in peaceful and
industrious times would cost a lifetime of effort. The creations of the poett are full
of sudden metamorphoses in domesti c existence; they all rave about marquises
and princesses, ahout the prodigies of the l'howand and Om! Nights. It is an
opium trallce that has overspread the whole population, and industry is more to
blame for t ltis than poetry. Industry was responsible for the swindle in the Stock
Exchange, the exploitation of all things made to serve artificial needs, and the . . .
dividends." Gutzkow, Briefe Ull.! Paris <Leipzig, 1842), vol. I , p. 93. [l1a,5]
While art seeks out the intimate view, ... industry marches to t.he fore." Oc·
tave Mirbeau, in Le Fignro (1889). (See E/lcycwpedie d 'architecmre [1889]
p.92.) (lIa,6]
On the cxhibition of 1867. " These high galleries, kilomet ers ill length, were of an
undeniable grandeur. The noi se of machinery fLIled t hem. And it should IIOt be
forgotten that, when this exhibition hdd its famoll s galas, guests stiU drove up to
the festivitics in a eoach-and-cight. As was usual with rooms at thi s period, at­
tempt s were made-through furniture-like installations-to prettify these twenty­
five-meter- high gall eries allli to relieve the austerity of their design. One stood ill
fear of olle's own magnitmle." Sigfri ed Giedion, Ballen in f'rtlllkreicli <Leipzig and
Berlin, 1928), p. 43. [Ila,7]
Under the bourgeoisie, cities as well as pieces of furniture retain the character of
fortifications. "Tdlllow, it was meJortiJied city which constantly paralyzed town
planning." Le Corbusicr, Urbanisme (paris (1925»), p. 249.
2
[I1a,B]
The ancient correspondence betl':een house and cabinet acquires a new variant
through the insertion of glass roundels in cabinet doors. Since when? '\\ere these
also found in France? [Ila,9]
The bourgeois pasha in the imagination of contemporaries: Eugene Sue. He had
a castle in Sologne. There, it was said, he kept a harem filled with women of
color. Mter his death, the legend arose that he had been poisoned by theJesuits.
3
[12,1]
Gutzkow reports that the exhibition salons were full of oriental scenes calculated
to arouse enthusiasm for Algier s. [12,2]
On the ideal of "distinction." "Eyerything tends toward the 80urish, toward the
curve, toward intricate convolution. MIat the reader does not perhaps gather at
first sight, however, is that this manner of laying and arranging things also incor­
porates a setting apart-one that leads us back to the knight. / The carpet in the
foreground lies at an angle, diagonally. The chairs are likewise arranged at an
angle, diagonally. Now, this could be a coincidence. But if we were to meet with
this propensity to siruate objects at an angle and diagonally in all the dwellings of
all classes and social strata-as, in fact, we do-then it can be no coincidence ... .
In the first place, arranging at an angle enforces a distinction-and this, once
more, in a quite literal sense. By the obliquity of its position, me object sets itself
ofT from the ensemble, as the carpet does here .. . . But the deeper explanation for
all this is, again, the unconscious retention of a posture of struggle and defense. I
In order to defend a piece of ground, I place myself expressly on the diagonal,
because then I have a free view on two sides. It is for this reason that the bastions
of a fortification are constructed to form salient angles .... And doesn' t the
carpet, in this position, recall such a bastion? . . . IJust as the knight, suspecting
an attack, positions himself crosswise to guard both left and right, so the peace·
loving burgher, several ccnruries later, ordcrs his art objects in such a way that
each one, if only by standing out from all the rest, has a wall and moat surround·
ing il. He is thus trul y a Spir:55biirgr:r, a militant philistine." Adolf Behne, Nr:uu
Wohnr:n-Nr:uu Bauro. (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 45-48. In elucidating this point, the
author remarks half-seriously: "The gentlemen who could afford a villa wanted
[0 mark their hi gher standing. What easier way than by borrowing feudal fonus,
kni ghtl y fonns?" (ibid., p. 42). More universal is Lukacs' remark that, from the
perspective of the philosophy of history, it is characteristic of the middle classes
that their new opponelU, the proletariat, should have entered the arena at a
mOment when the old adversary, feudalism, was nOt yet vanquished. And they
will never quite have done with feudalism. [12,3]
Maurice Banes h.u characterized ProUSt as "a Persian poet in a concierge's box."
Could the first person to grapple with the en.igma of the ninclccnth-ccmury
interior be anything else? (!be citation is inJacques-Emile Blanche, M e; M odele;
[Paris, 1929] 1)' (12,' 1
AJlIIOUnCCllll!lIt puhLished in til e neWSpSIH!f S: " Notice.-Monsieur Wiert:r; offen to
paint a pi cture free of charge (or all Ylovers of painting who, p085cssing 8n origi nal
Rubens or Raphael , would Like 10 place his work as a pendant beside the work of
ei ther of these masters." A. J. Wi ertz , Oeuvres lilleraires (Paris. 1870), II. 335.
-
(12,51
Nineteenth-ccnrury domestic interior. The spacc...disgWgsjlScif::=.puts
creature, the costwnes of moo$;. The self-satisfied burgher should know
something of the feeling that the next room might have witnessed the coronation
of Charlemagne as weU as the assassination of Henri Iv, the signing of the Treaty
of Verdun as well as the wedding Otto and Theophano. In the end, things are
mercly mannequins, and even the great moments of world history are onl;:
costumes beneath which they exchange glances of complicity with
with the petty and the banal. Such nihilism is the innennost core of bourgeois
coziness-a mood that in hashish intoxication concentrates to satamc content·
ment, satanic knowing, satanic calm, indicating preciscly to what extent the
nineteenth-century interior is itself a stimulus to intoxication and dream. 'Ibis
mOO(! involves, furthennore, an aversion to the oPen air, the (so to ra­
man amlosphere, which throws a nC\v light on the extravagant interior design of
the period. To live in these interiors was to have woven a dense fabric about
oneself, to have secluded oneself within a spider's web, in whose toils world
events hang loosel y suspended like so many insect bodies sucked dry. From this
cavern, one does not like to stir.$ [12,6J
During my second experiment with hashish. Staircase in CharlotteJoi:l's srudio.
I said: "A strucrure habitable only by wax figures. I could do so much with it
plastically; Piscator and company can just go pack. \\buld be possible for me to
change the lighting scheme with tiny levers. I can transfonn the Goethe house
into the Covent Garden opera; can read from it the whole of world history. I see,
in this space, why I collect colportage images. Can see everything in this roolll­
the sons of Charles III and what you will."6 [12a. 1J
" The serrated coll urs alltl puffed sleeyes . , . whk h were mistakeuly thought to be
the gal"li of metli eyu llutl ies." Jacob Falke, Ceschichte <les mo<lerllell GesclltlUi ck s
(Leipzi g. 1866). p. 347. {12a,2]
;'Since the gi ilt ering a rcades ha\'C I-.n cut through th.: st n.-ets . t l. e Pailli ll. ){oya l
has cfftlClivdy lost Ollt . Some wou ld lIay: siuce the times havc grown more yirtuous.
What were once II lII all Cllbi,l eu l}tIrlielliie r. of ill reput e haYe now become II moking
rooms in cofft.-e houses. Each corfeeholl se hUll II smoking room known li S the di­
V/lfI ." Gut zkow. Briefe /lU", I'Cl ri., (Lei pzi g. 1842). vol. I. p. 226. 0 Arcades 0
[12a,3]
" Tll e great Berlin intlulltrial e)(hihition ill full of illll)osing Renaissance rooms; eYen
Ihe ashtraYIl are in a ntique st yle. the curt a ins haye to be secured with halberds,
all d the bull's-eye r ules in window a nd cabinet." 70 J ahre deutsche Mode (1925),
p. i2. [12a,4]
An observation from the year 1837. "In those days, the classical style reigned,
just as the rococo does today. With a stroke of its magic wand, fashion . ..
uansfonned the salon into an atrium, armchairs into curule seats, dresses with
trains into tumCS, drinking glasses into goblets, shoes intO buskins, and guitars
into lyres." Sophie Gay, Der Salon tier Friiulein Conte! (in Europa: Chrrmilt der
gtbildeten Welt, ed. August !..ewald, vol. 1 [Leipzig and Stuttgart, 1837], p. 358).
Hence the following: "What is the height of embarrassment?" "When you bring
a harp to a party and no one asks you to play it." 'Ibis piece of drollery, which
also illuminates a certain type of interior, probabl y dates from the Frrst Empire.
[12a,5]
"As to Baudelaire's 'stage properties'-which Wert no doubt modeled on the
fashion in interior decoration of his day-they might provide a useful lesson for
those elegant ladies of the past twenty years, who used to pride thcrnsclves that
nOt a single ' false note' was to be found in their town houses. They \'\'Quld do well
to consider, when they contemplate the alleged purity of style which they have
achieved with such infinite trouble, that a man may be the greatest and most
artistic of writers, yet describe nothing but beds with 'adjustable curtains' ... ,
halls like conservatories ... , beds 6lled with subde scents, sofas deep as tombs,
whatnots loaded with Bowers, lamps burning so briefly ... that the only light
COmes from the coal fire." Marcel Proust, Chrrmiquts (Paris <1927», pp. 224-225
7
(the tides of works cited arc: omitted). These remarks are important because they
make it possible to apply to the interior an antinomy fonnu1ated with regard to
museums and town planning-namely, to confront the new style with the mysti­
cal-nihilistic expressive power of the traditional, the "antiquated." Which of these
tv.·o alternatives Proust would have chosen is revealed not only by this passage, it
:.nay be added, but by the whole of his ","'Ork (compare renfirmi-"closed·up,"
musty"). [12a.6J
Desideratum: the derivation of genre painting. What function did it serve in the
rOOms that had need of it? It was the last stage-harbinger of the fact that soon
these spaces \\'Ould no longer, in gener-..tI, welcome pictures. "Genre painting ....
Conceived in tllls way, an could not fail to resOrt to the specialtics so suited to the
ead} artist wants to have his own special ty, from the pastiche of the
Middle Ages to microscopic painting, from the routines of the bivouac to Paris
fashions. from horses to dogs. Public taste in this regard docs not discrimi­
nate .... The same picrure can be copied twenty times lVithout exhausting de­
mand and, as the vogue prescribes, each well-kept drawing room wants to have
onc of these Cashionablefumirhing.r," Wicrtz, CkUUTtJ littiraires <Paris, 1870),
pp. 527- 528. 112a,7]
Against the annature of glass and iron, upholstery offers with its
textiles. 113, 1]
-
One need only srudy wi th due exactitude the physiognomy of the homes of great
collectors. Then onc would have the key to the nineteenth-century interior. Just
as in the fonner case: the objects gradually take possession of the residence, so in
the latter it is a piece of furniture: that wou1d n:mevt: and assemble the styJ!.stic
traces of the centuries. 0 W:>rld of Things 0 [13,2)
Why does the glance intO an unknown window always find a family at a meal, or
else a solitary man, seated at a table under a hanging lamp, occupied with some
obscure niggling thing? Such a glance is the germ cell of Kafka's work. [13,3]
The masquerade of styles, as it unfolds across the nineteenth century, resul
-
ts
from the fact that relations of dominance: become obscured. The holders of
power in the bourgeoisie no longer necessarily exercise this power in the places
where they live (as renben), and no longer in direct unmediated fonns. The style
of their residences is their false inunediacy. Economic alibi in space. Interior alibi
in time. (13,<J
"The art would be to be able to fed homesick, even though one is at home.
Expertness in the use of illusion is required for this." Kierkegaard, Slimtliche
Werke <properly: Gejilmmelte Werkn, vol. 4 gena, 1914), p. 12 <Stage; on Lift';
This is the fonnula for the interior. [13,5]
" lnwar duess is t he hi stor ical prisou of primordi al human nature. " Wiesengrund­
Adorno, Kierkegaarcl (Tiibingell , 1933), p. 68.
9
[13,61
S«ond Empire. " It is tlus epoch tha t sees the birth of the logical specializati on
genus and species that &till prevails in moS( homes, and that r eserves oak and sO.lid
walnut for the dining room and st udy, gil ded wood and lacquer s for the drawlIIg
room, marquet ry and veneering for the bedroom." Louis SOllolet , La Vie
po ri"iellne " 011..1 Ie Second Empire (Paris . 1929), p . 251. [13, 71
" \l(hat dominated this conception of furnishing. in a manner so pronounced as 10
epi lOmi'1.I' the whole. til e taste for draped fa hr ics . ampl e hll l1gi ngs, a nd the art
of hll rmonillii ng t hem 1111 in a visual cnsemble." Louis Sonolet , LAI Vif!
$0 11..1 Ie Second Empire ( Puris, 1929). p. 253. [13,8J
" The d rawing rooms of t he Second Empire cont ai ned ... a piece of fur niture (I uite
n:ceuti y invent ed and today completely cxtinct : it was t he fllmell.se. You sat on it
ast ride. whil e leaning lJack on uphoLs ter.:tl a rlll- rests and enjoying a cigar." Loui s
50nolet , LA, Vie parij ie,we $011" If! Second Empire (P:lris, 1929), p. 253. [13,9)
On the ,· ftl igree of chimneys" as "'fat a 1II0rga na" of the int er ior : " Whoever raises
hi s eyes 10 the housetops, wi th their iron ra ilings tracing the upper edge of the long
gray boul eva rd blocks. discovers the variet y and inexhauslibilit y of the concept
·chimlley.' In all degrees of hc.ight , breadth, li nd lengt h , the ri se from
their base in t he common stone flues; they range from simple clay pipes, oftentimes
half-broken and stoolH:d with age, a nd those tin pipes wi lh flat plates or pointed
caps, ... to re\'olving chimney cowls a rt full y ltertora ted Like visors or ol)Cn 0 11 one
side, with bizarre soot-bl ackened met al fl aps ... . It is the ... teuder irony of the
one single form hy which Pllris .. . has been able tu prcscr ve tile magic of inti­
macy .. . . 50 it is as if the urbane coexistence, .. that is characteristic of tlus cit y
were to be met with again UI) ther e Oil t he rooft ops." J oachi m von 1:Ie.!mersen ,
" Pariser Kamine," Frankf urter Zeitung. Febr uary 10, 1933. {13,lO)
Wi esengrund ci tes and commcnts on a passage from the D;(lry of a Seducer-a
passage tha t he considers t he key to Kierkegaard's " entire oeuvre": " Environment
and setting still have a great influence upon one; there is something about them
whi ch stamps itself fl""l y a nd deepl y in the memory, or r ather upon the whole
souJ , and which is therefore never forgotten . However old I may become, it will
always be impossibl e for me t o think of Cordeli a amid surroundings different from
t his Li t tle room. Wilen I come to visit her, the maid admits me t o the ha ll ; Cordelia
herself cOllies in from her r oom, and, just as I open t he door to ent er the Li ving
room, she opens her door, so t hat our eyes meet exactly in the doorway. The living
room is small , comfortahle, Linle more tha n a cabinet. Ahhough I ha ve now seen it
from ma ny different vi ewpoints, the oll e dea rest to me is the view from the sofa.
She sits there by my side; in front of us stands a round tea t able, over whi ch is
draped a rich talll « lolh. On the table stands a lamp shal.oo Li ke a Rower, which
shoots up vigorously to bea r its crown , over which a dcLi cately cut paper shade
hangs dowli so li ghtl y that it is never still. T he lamp's form rcminds olle of oriental
lallds; the "lUde 's movement , of mild ori ent al breezes. T he fl oor is concealed by a
carpet wo"en froni II cer t ain kind of osier, which imnu, ..iiately bet rays its foreign
origin . For the moment . J let t he lamp become the keynote of my lalU.lscape. I am
sitt ing with Iter outstretched 0 11 t he fl oor, under the I II II1P 'S fl oweri ng. At
other tilll es I let the osier rug evoke thoughl8 of a ship. of 11 11 offi cer 's ea hin- we
sail out int o the middle of the grea t I)t;ell n. When we sit a t a liista nee from the
window, we gaze directl y into hea\'cn's vast horizon .... Cordeli a 's
lIlust have no foreground. but onl y the infi nit e boldness of far horizons" (Cesa m ­
melte Schriften <Jl rOllCrly: Werke (J enn. 19 11» , \·0J. I , pp. 348-349 [Bither/Or )).
W·
lesengrlUl(l rema rks: " Just as ext ernal hi stor y is "'cRected ' ill illternul hi story,
semhl anee <Sclre;l!) iii in thl) illler ielir space. Kierkegnar(1 110 more discerned tim
d emellt of semhl ance in all Ilu:rely rdlL'Clcd and refl ecti ng irllrasuJ)j ecti ve reaLil y
than he leel through the semblance of the spatial in the image of the inl erior. But
here lIe is exposed by the mat eri al. ... The contenls of I.he int erior are mer e
decor ation. alienated from IIl e purposes they represent , deprived of their own li se
value, engendered solely by the isolated dwelling-Ipace.... The self is ove;:=-­
whelmed in it s own domain by commodities and thei r historica l eUCRee. Their
semblunce-character is historically-economicaUy produced by the alienation of
thing from lise value. But in the interior, things do nol remain aUen .... Foreign-=-­
ness transfornlA: iuelf from alienated things into expreuion; mute things speak 88
' , ymhols.' The ordering of thinge in the dwelling-space is called 'arrangement.'
Historicall y illusor y <wJdlichllich objecll a re arranged in it as the aem­
- b1anceof unchangeahl e nature. In the interior, archaic images unfold: the image of
the flower al tilat of organi c life; the image of the orient as specifi clill y the home­
land of yearning; the image of the sea as that of eternity itself. For the semblance
to whi ch the hi storical hour condenlllS things is eternal. " Theodor Wi esengrund­
Adorno, (Tiibingen, 1933), pp. 46-48.
111
{13 a]
The bourgeois who came into ascendancy with Louis Philippe sets store by the
transfonnation of nature into the interior. In 1839, a ball is held at the Britisll
embassy. Two hundred rose bushes'jll"e ordered. "The garden," so runs.Jgl eye:­
witness account, "was covered by an awning and had the feel of a drawing room.
But what a drawing room! The fragrant, well -stocked Hower beds had turned
into enonnous jardiniem, the graveled walks had disappeared under sumpruous
carpets, and in place of the cast·iron benches we found sofas covered in damask
and silk; a round table held books and albums. From a distance, the strains of an
orchestra drifted intO this colossal boudoir." (14,11
Fa8hi on j ournals of the IJeriod contained instructions for preserving bouquets.
[14,2]
" Like an odalisque upon a shimmering bronze divan, the proud cil Y Li es amid
warm, vine-dad hills ill the scrpentine valley of the Seine." Friedrich Engels, " Von
l:tari s nach Bern," Die neue Zeit . 17, no. 1 (Stuttga rt , 1899), p. 10. {14,3]
The difficulty in reHecting on dwelling: on the one hand, there is something
age-old-perhaps eternal-to be recognized here, the image of that abode of the
human being in the maternal womb; on the other hand, this motif of prima1
history notwithstanding, we must understand dwelling in its most extreme fonn
as a condition of nineteenth-century existence. The original foml of all dwelling
is existence not in the house but in the shell. The shell bears the impression of its
occupant. In the most extreme instance, the dwelling becomes a shell. The nine­
teenth century, like no other century, was addicted to dwelling. It conceived the
residence as a receptacle for the person, and it encased him with all hls appurte­
nances so deeply in the d",'elli.ng's interior that one might be reminded of the
inside of a compass case, where the instnullent with all its accessories lies embed­
ded in deep, usually violet folds of What didn' t the nineteenth c::entury
invent some sort of casing for! (\)eket watches, slippers, egg cups, thermometers,
playing cards- and, in lieu of cases, there were jackets, carpets, wrappers, and
covers. The twentieth century, with its porosity and transparency, its tendency
toward the well-lit and airy, has put an end to dwelling in the old Set ofT
against the doll house in the residence of the master builder Solncss are the
"homes for hwnan being!."11 Jugendstil unsettled the world of the shell in a
radical way. Today this "-arid has disappeared entirely, and dwelling has dimin­
ished: for the living, through hOld rooms; for the dead, through crematoriums.
[14,4]
"To dwell" as a transitive verb-as in the notion of "indwelt spaces";ll herewith
an indication of the frenetic topicality concealed in habirual behavior. It has to do
with fashioning a shell for oursdves. {14,5]
" From under aU the corll l branches and bushes, they Iwam into view; from under
every t able, every chair; from oul of the drawers of til e old-fashioned cabinets and
wardrobell that l>lood within Ihis stra nge cl ubroom- in short , from every hand's­
breadth of hiding whi ch the 8pOt provided to the smallest of fi sh, they suddenl y
came to Life aud showed themselves." Friedrich Cer stiicker, verlunkene Stadt
(Berlin: Neufeld and Benius, 1921), p. 46. {14a, l ]
From a revi ew of Eugene Sue's Juiferrant <Wandering J ew>, cri ti cized for various
reasons, incl uding the denigrati on of the Jesui ts and the unmanageable abundance
of cha racters who do nothing bUI al)pear and di sappear: "A novel is not a place
one passes through; it is a place one inhabits." Paulin Limayr ac, " Du Roman
BCtUe! et de nos romanciers," Revue del deux mondel, 11 , no. 3 (Paris, 1845),
p.951. {14a,2]
On literary Empire. Nel)OmuCfme Lemen.:ier brings onto the stage, under allegori­
cal names, the Monar chy, the Church, the Aristocr acy, the Demagoguel , the Em­
pi r e, the Police, Li ter ature, and t he Coali t ion of European powers. His artistic
means: " the fantasti c applied embl ematically." His maxim: " Allusions are my
weapolIs; aUegory, my buckler. " NepoDlucime Lenlercier, Suite de la Panhy.
pocriJiade. ou Le Spectacle infernal du dix-neuvieme l iecie (Paris, 1832), PI)' ix,
vii. {I4a,3]
FrUIn til e " Expose prClimillairc" 10 I..elll cr cier 's uJIllpelie et Daguerre: "A short
prea mble is lu:cessary 10 introduce my audi ell ce t o til e compositional strategy of
t hi s POCIII , whose subj ect prnise for the "lIule hy Ihe artist
M. Daguel' re; this il; a tliscover y of equal inlerest to the Academy of Science and
t he Academy of Finc Arts, for it cOll cerns the stud y of drawing as much ItS the
Slutl y of physics.... On t he oceallion of such an homage, I would Like to see a IICW
invelltiOIl in 1)t}Clry applied to cxtraortlinary discovery. We know Ihlll ancient
myt hulogy ... explained nalura l by symbolic beings. acti ve repre­
sellt ations of the parlicul a r principles cmbtKli ed in things .. . . Mot.Iern imitations
have, up 10 !l OW, borrowed only the forms of clauicallH>etry; I am endeavoring to
appropriate for 11 8 I.hc principl e and the substance. The lendell cy of the versifiers
of our cenlUry ill 10 retl uce the a rt of the to practical aud trivial rcnlilic8,
easil y compreil cn8ible by the average person. This is not progreu hUI decadence.
The origiJl li1 enthusiasm of the ancienl s, by contrast , tcutl et! to el evat e the 1111man
illtcUigcll ce by initiating it into thosc secrets of nat ure revealed by the elegantl y
ideal fables.... It is 1101 without encouragement that 11ay bare for you the fouD­
dations of my theory, which I ha ve a pplied ... to Newtoni an philosophy in my
A,'an.im/e. The learned geometer Lagruuge has been 110 generous as 10 voice 8P­
proval of my alternp! to creale for our modern muses that great ra rit y: a theoso­
phy ... conforming to acquired knowledge.'" Nel)Qmucene I...cmereier, Sur fa
-
Decouverte ele r ingenieux pe intre du diorama: Seance publiqlle atulllelle de! cinq
academies de j emli 2 rnai 1839 ( Paris, 1839), pp. 21-23. [14a,4)
On the illusionistic painting of the J uste Mili eu: 13 ' 'The paint er must ... be a good
dramat ist , II good costumer, alld a skillful di rec: tor.... The public ... is much
more int erested in the 8ubj ect t han in the artistic qualiti es. ' Isn' t the most diffi eult
thing the blelltling of colors?-No, responds a connoisseur, it ' s gelling t he fish's
scales ri ght . Such was the idea of aesthetic creation alll oll g professors . lawyers,
doctors ; everywher e one admired the miracle of tromIHl-I' oeil . All Y
successful imitation would garner praise. '" Gisela Freund, " I..a Photographi e du
point d e vue 8ociologi«ue" (ManIl8cript , p. 102). The Iluot at ion is from Juletl
Bret on. No! pcintre. du sieck. p. 41. [15, 1)
Plush-the material in which traces are left especially easily.
[!S.2[
Furthering the fashion in knickknacks are the advances in metallurgy, which has
ill! origins in the First Empire. " During this period, grOUp8 of cupids anti bacchan­
tes aplleared for the first time .... Today, a rt owns a shop and displays the mar­
vels of its creations on shelve;; of gold or cryst al . wherea8 in lbme days
ma8t erpiet:cs of st at uary, reduced in prec:ise proportion. were sold at a di8coMt .
The 1·hree Cruces of Canova found a place in the boudoir, whil e the B(l cclwntes
and the Falin of Pradier had the honors of the b r idal chamber." Ed ouartl Fou­
ca ud, Pm"is inve"teur: Pll ysiologie de l'industriejrum. (li!c ( Paris, 1844), pp. 196­
197. [1S.3[
" The science of til e poster .. . has attained that r a re tl egrce of llerfccti oll ul whi ch
skillturn8 int o art . And here I alii IIQt speaking of those extruol·dinury placa rds
. .. un which ex pert s ill c.II lli graphy ... undert ake to r epresent Na poleon on
horseback by all iugcniuli s combinati on of (jIl CS in whi ch the course of hi s hi stor y
is simuhullcolisly narrated and depi ct ed . No. I shall confllle III YscI£ t o ordinur y
p... stt' rl. sce how fu r these ha ve been aLle to push t he el oquence or t ypQ'
graph y. the st:tlucli ons of the vignett e. t he fuscinati ol18 of coiur, h y using I.hl: 1II08t
va rictl .II. lId br illiant of huell 11.1 iCllli perflfiious support to 11m ruses of du: l'uhli8h­
era!" Vi ctor FOUfnel , Ce qu '1.1 11 lJOil l i tUl S leJ r ues de Priri.s ( Paris . 1858), pp. 293­
294 ("Ell seib'llclI ct uffi chu"). [15,4J
Int erior of Alphouse Karr', apa rtment : " 'Ie lives li.ke 111.1 Q II C el se. These days he'.
1.111 the 5ixt h or seveuth fl oor above the Rue Vi vienne. The Rue Vivi enne for an
artist! His apa rtment is hung in bl ack; he has windowpanes of violet or white
frosted glass. He has neither ta bl es lIor chain (at mMt , II singl e chair for excep­
tional visitors), and he slet:p8 on a dj van- full y d ressed, I' m toltl. He lives like a
Turk, on cushions. and writes sitting on the fl()Qr... . Hi8 waUs are det:orated with
,.adou.!! old things ... ; Chinese va8es, death-heads, fe ncer 's foils, and tobacco
pipes ornament e,·er y corner. For a 8er vant , he haa a mul atto whom he outfits in
scarlt:t from head to t oe!' Jul es Lecomt e, u s Lettre, de Von Engelsom. cd. AI­
meras ( Pari.!!, 1925), pp. 63-M. 115,5)
From Daumi er 's Croquis pri.! ou S%" (Sketches Made at the Salon>. A solitar y
art -lover indi cating a pi cture 011 whi ch two mi ser able popl ars are represented in a
fl at lalldscape: " What society could be as degenerat e and corrupt as ours? ...
Everyone looks at pi ctures of more or less monstrous scenes, but no one stops
before an image of beautiful lind pure lI ature." [I5a, l ]
On the occasioll of a murder case in London whi ch turned on the discovery of a
sack cont aining the vi ctim's body parts, together with remnanll! of clothing; from
the latter. the poli ce we re able to draw Ct!rtain conclusions. "'So many things in a
minuet!' a celebrated daucer u.!!ed to say. So many things in an overcoat !-wben
circumstances a nd men make it Slleak . You will say it ' , a bi t much to expect a
person, each ti me he acqui res a topcoat , to consider tbat one day it may sene him
as a willding sheet . I admit that my slIPI)Qsitions a re not exactly rose-colored. But,
I relHlat , ... the week's e"enlS have been doleful . " H. de Pene, Pori.! intlme
( Pari s, 1859), 1' .236. 115a,2J
Furniture at the time of the Rest or ation: "sofas, divans, ottomans, love seats,
recliners, sett ees ." J acques Robi(luet . L'A rt et legoul SOIlS la Restouralwn (Paris,
1928). p . 202. [15a.3)
" We hllve alread y said ... Ihat humanit y is regressing to the sta te of cave dweller,
and so all- hut t hat it is regressing in an est ranged . mali gnant form. The savage in
hi s ca,·c ... fL'tJ ls ... III home t here .... But the hasement apartment of the poor
JUa n is a hostil e dwell ing, ' a n IIliclI . rest ruining power , whi ch gi ves itself up to him
0111 '1 insofa r as he gives up to it II is hl ood and sweat .' Such a (Iwclling can never feel
like home. II pi llce where he mi gl ll a t last excl aim. ' Here I am at home!' Instead,
the poor lIlan findl himsel f in someone d se' s home. . . someone who d ail y lies in
wai t for him a nd til row. him Ollt if he d ocs not pay hi s rent . He is a lso aware of the
Cont rast i.n «lIl1lh y between hi a dwell ing 11111111 hUlll an dwdling-a residence ill that
ot her world , the heaven of wealt h." Ka rl Ma r x. lJe,. hislorische M(Jteriaiismw,
ed. Landshut and Mayer (Leipzi g ( 1932) . vol. J. p. 325 ("Nati onalOkoli omi e und
-
Philosophic" )." [15a.4J
Valer y 011 Poe. He IIml erlines the Ameri can writ er ', incomparabl e illSight int o t he
conditi ons and effects of liter ar y work in general: " What di stinguishes a trul y
gener al phenomenon i8 its fertilit y.... It i8 therefore not surprising that Poe,
posscningllo effective and l ure a method, became Ihe invent or of sever al different
lit era r y fonns-that he provided the fi rst ... exampl es of the scient ifi c t ale. the
modern cosmogoni c poem, the detective novel , the lit erature of morbid psycho­
-
logical 8tat es .'· Valer y, " Int roduction" to Baudelai r e. LeIJ FLeur. du mal <Pari B,
1926), p. xx.
I
' [15a,5]
In the following description of a Parisian salon, Gautier gives drastic expression
to the integration of the individual into the interior: "The eye, entranced. is led to
the groups of ladies who. Buttering their fans. listen to the talkers half·reclining.
Their eyes are sparkling like diamonds ; their shou1ders glisten like satin; and
their lips open up like flowers." (Artificial things come forth!) Pari; e/ leJ PariJinu
aux XIX' Jiecie (Paris, 1856), p. iv (Theophile Gautier, "Introduction,,). [16,1]
/
Balzac's interior decorating in the rather ill-fated property Les J ardies :
15
"This
house ... was one of the romances on which M. de Balzac worked hardest
during his life. but he was never able to finish it . ... ' On these patient walls: as
M. Gotlan has said, ' there were charcoal inscriptions to this effect : "Here a facing
in Parian marble"; "Here a cedar stylobate
n
; "Here. a ceiling painted by Eugene
Delaooix"; "Here a fireplace in cipolin marble ... •.. Alfred Nettement, H islom de
La littiralurt ftanfaUt JOU; Ie gouumzcnmJ de j uilk J (Paris, 1859), vol. 2. pp. 266­
267. (16,21
Development of "The Interior" chapter : entry of the prop into 6lm. [16,3]
E. R. Curtius ci tes the foUowing passage from Balzac's Pth"tJ &urgtflu: "The
hideous unbridled speculation that lowers, year by year, the height of the ceilings,
that fits a whole apartment into the space fonnerl y occupied by a drawing room
and declares war on the garden, will not fail to have an influence on Parisian
morals. Soon it will become necessary to live more. outside the house than within
it.
n
Ernst Roben Curti us, Baluu: (Bonn, 1923), p. 28. Increasing importance of
the streets. for various reasons. [16.4]
there. is a connection between the shrinking of residential space and the
elaborate furnishing of the interior. Regarding the first, Balzac makes some telling
observations : "Small pictures alone are in demand because large ones can no
longer be hung. Soon it wiU be a formidable problem to house one's library ....
One can no longer find space for provisions of any son . Hence, one buys things
thal are not calrulated to wear well. 'The shirts and the books won't last, so there.
you are. The durability of products is disappearing on all sides!" Ernst Robert
Curtius, & Juu: (Bonn, 1923), pp. 28-29. [16,5]
"Sunsets cnt their glowing on the walls of di n.ing room and drawing room,
filtering softl y through lovely hangingil or intricate high windows with nmllioned
panes. An the furniture is immense, fant astic, strange, armed with lock! and
te(:rets like aU ch·i.lized 801l1s. Mi r ror s, metals , fabrics , pottery, and works of the
goldsmith's art playa mut e mysterious symphony for the eye. " Charlcs Baude­
lai.re, Le Spleen de Paris, ed . R. Simon (Paris), p. 21 ("L' lnvitation all voyage")Y
[16a,I)
Etymology of the word "comfort ." " I.n EngLis h, it used to mean eanJoMtion ('Com­
rort er ' is the epithet applied to the Holy Spirit). Then the sense became. instead,
well-being . Today, in aU languages of the worl d, the word designates nothing more
than rati onal conveni ence. " Wladimir Weidle, Les Abeilks d 'Aristee (Paris
p. 115 ("L' Agonie de I' art"). [16a,2]
"The arti st-midinettes . .. 110 longer occupy rooms; rather, they live in studios.
(More and more, you hear ever y place of habitation caUed a 'studi o,' as if people
",er e more and more becoming artists or u udents .)" Henri Polles, "L' Art du com­
nlerce," Vendredi , Febr uary 12, 1931. [16a,3]
Multiplication of traces through the modem administrative apparatus. Balzac
draws attention to this : "Do your uttnost, hapless Frenchwomen, to re.main
unknown, to weave the very least little romance in the midst of a civilization
which takes note. on public squares, of the hoW' when every hackney cab comes
and goes; which counts every letter and stamps them twice, at the exact time they
are posted and at the time they are deliven=d; which numbers the houses ... ;
which ere long will have every acre of land, down to the smallest holdings . . . ,
laid down on the broad sheets of a survey- a giant's task, by command of a
giant." Balzac, Mignon, LI cited in Regis Messac, U "Dtltch"ue Novel " «I
I'irifluma de Ja ptnJit JcitnJifiqun (Paris, 1929), p. 461. [16a,4)
"Vi ctor Hugo works standing up, and, since he cannot find a suitable antique to
serve as his desk, he writes 011 a stack of 8tools and large books whi ch is covered
....ilb a carpet . It is on the Bi ble. it is on the Nuremberg Chronicles, that the poet
lea ns and spreads his Ilaper." Louis Ulhach, LeJ Contemporaim (Paris, 1833),
cited ill Uaymond Escholier, Victor Hugo raCOnle par ceux qui I'ollt vu (Paris ,
1931), p. 352. [17,1]
The Louis Philippe style: "The bto:Uy overspreads everything, even the time­
pieces." [17,2]
There is an apocalyptic interior- a complement, as it were. , of the bourgeois
interior at midcentury. It is to be found with Victor Hugo. He writes of spiritual­
isoc manifestati ons: "I have been checked for a moment in my miserable human
by a,crual revelation, coming to throw around my little miner's lamp
a streak of li ghtning and of meteor." In us Contnnp/o6onJ, he writes:
'* for any sounds in these dismal empty spaces;
Wandenng through the shadows, """e listen to the breath
1'bat malta the darkness shudder;
And now and then, lost in unfathomable nights,
'W: sce lit up by mighty lights
The window of etentity.
(Cited in Claudius Grillet,
Vu/or Hugo Jpidle <Lyons and Paris, pp. 52,
-
22. )
[17,3J
Lodgings around 1860: " The 8 ,)ilrtmenl ... was situated on the Rue d' Anj ou. It
was decorated ... with Cll rjH: t 8, door curtains , fringed valances, doubl e draper_
ies, 80 thai yOIl would think the Stone Age had been succeeded by an Age of
Hangi ngs." Louise Weiu, Souvenirs d'u"e en/ance republicaine (Paris <1937»,
p. 212 . [17, 41
The relation of the jugendsti1 interior to its predecessors comes down to the fact
that the bourgeois conceals his alibi in history with a still more remote alj,bi in
natural history (specifically in the realm of plants). [17,5)
Th: eruis, dust covers, sheaths with which the bourgeois household of the pre­
cedmg century encased its utensils were so many measures taken to capture and
preserve traces. [17,6]
On the history of the domestic interior. The residential character of the rooms in
the early though disconcerting and inexpedient, adds this homely
touch: that WIthin these spaces one can imagine the factory owner as a quaint
figurine in a landscape of machines, drnming not only of his own but of their
future greatness. With the dissociation of the proprietor from the workplace, this
characteristic of factory buildings disappears. Capital alienates the employer, too,
from his means of production, and the dream of their future greatness is finished.
This alienation process culminates in the emergence of the private home.
[I7a,l )
" During the first of the nineteenth century, furniture and the objects that
Surrounded liS for li se and pl easure were relatively simple a nd durable , and ac·
t'onle{1 with the needs of both the lower and the u"per stnll a. This result ed ill
people's altaciullcnt. as they grew u" , to the object s of their surroumlings .... The
differ entiati on of objects has broken down thi s situation in three different
way •. . .. Fi r;H, Ihe sill.:er quuntil Yof ... cry speci fi call y formed objt.:t:ts make II close
.. . rel ationship to eacl t of them more djffi cuit .... This is expreued ... ill IIIC
housewife'. cumplai.nl Iha l Ihe care of the household becomes ceremonial felis h­
ism .... Thi. concurrenl differ entiation has the same effect a8 cOllsC(: uti ...e differ ­
clltiation. Changes in fashion di srupllhal ... procell of ... assimilalion between
subj ect and object. . . . [In the third "lace. there is] the multitude of style. thai
confront s us whell we view Ihe obj ect8 I.bal surround us ." Georg Simmel , Philo! o_
pllie tie! Geldes (Lei pzig, 19(0). PI>· 491-494. [17a,2)
On the theory of the trace. To "the Harbor-Master, ... [as] a son of ... deputy­
Nepnme for the circumambient seas, ... I was, in common with the other sea­
men of the port, merely a subject for officia1 writing, filling up of fonns with all
the artificial superiority of a man of pen and ink to the men who grapple with
realities outside the consecrated walls of officia1 buildings. What ghosts we must
have been to him! Mere symbols to juggle with in books and heavy registers,
without brains and muscles and perplexities; something hardly useful and decid­
edly inferior." j oseph Conrad, Die Schaltm/inie (Berlin <1926» , p. 51.20 (Compare
with the Rousseau passage <cited below>.) [17a,3)
On the theory of the trace. Practice is eliminated from the productive process by
machinery. In the process of administration, something analogous occurs with
heightened organization. Knowledge of human nature, such as the senior em­
ployee could acquire through practice, ceases to be decisive. TIlls can be seen
when one compares Conrad' s observations in "The Shadow-Line" with a pas­
sage from u; OmftJJioru. [18, 1)
On the theory of the trace: administration in the eighteenth century. As secretary
to the French embassy in Venice, Rousseau had abolished the tax on passpons
for the French. "As soon as the news got around that I had refonned the passpon
tax, my only applicants were aowds of pretended Frenchmen who claimed in
abominable accents to be either from Provence, Picardy, or Burgundy. As I have
a fairly good ear, I was not easily fooled, and I doubt whether a single Italian
cheated me out of my ;equin, or a single Frenclunen paid it." jean:Jacques Rous­
seau, u; Confts.sioru, ed. Hilswn (Paris vol. 2, p_13Z
21
{18,2]
Baudelaire, in the introduction to hi. tran81ation of Poe'8 " PhiloliOphy of Furni­
ture," which originaUy appeared in October 1852 in Le Magluin des famiiles :
"' Who among U8, in hi8 idle houn, has not taken a delicious plea8ure in construct ­
ing for himself a model apartment. a dream house. a house of dream8?" Cbarles
Baudelaire, Oeuvres completes, ed . Crepet, Ilistoi re! g rotesques et serieuses par
Poe ( Paris, 1937), p. 3(H. {I8,3]